For democratic issue resolution, societal acceleration—the ever quicker rate of technological, social and life-pace change poses a conundrum: It raises the number of new social issues that appear on the political calendar, which enhances the need for quick and impactful policy responses. However, democratic politics move slowly. Therefore, either the political system maintains democracy at the expense of problem solving or it speeds up decision-making at the expense of democracy. Both options are obviously undesirable. How do governments attempt to resolve this conundrum and offer positive-sum alternatives that are equally democratic and effective? We offer two "paradigm instances" of governments—Denmark and the Netherlands—that have responded to social acceleration through digitalization in a very swift and efficient manner. With attention We suggest how governments attempt to resolve the conundrum for democratic problem resolution under conditions of social acceleration based on four markers: awareness, timing, motivation for new strategic goals, and goal-directed strategic policy action.
KeywordsDigitalization; Democratic problem solving; Social acceleration; Paradigm case studies
Published Date: 2023-02-28; Received Date: 2023-02-02
