REVISITING STRUCTURAL AND AGENTIAL APPROACHES TO DEMOCRATISATION IN THE AGE OF INTERNETISATION AND CYBERISATION

Humanity’s long-standing challenge to exist freely under authoritarian regimes and its pursuit of democratisation are two enduring themes. The resurgence of populist authoritarianism in recent years has elevated the discourse on democratisation to the forefront of political discourse. The transformative advancements in internet technology and the subsequent cyberisation process have redefined the spectrum of possibilities for structures and agencies in the realm of political contention, profoundly altering the dynamics of the structure-agency relationship. In light of these developments, this study aims to reconsider the theories of democratisation. In order to achieve this, the principal theories that seek to elucidate the processes of democratisation in a range of geographical contexts have been presented and subjected to further analysis in the context of the internetisation and cyberisation processes that began to emerge in the 2000s. In this context, the evolving nature of democratisation demands have been initially interrogated, and subsequently, the counter-moves of authoritarian regimes within this equation have been examined. Furthermore, this study adopts a normative stance against populist authoritarianism and espouses the values of democracy. The cyber world, as an alternative to the physical world, provides actors with the capacity to act independently of spatial and temporal constraints, enabling the pursuit of social opposition beyond the confines of the physical public sphere and beyond the reach of authoritarian regime control. Thus, efforts to democratise authoritarian regimes gain ground on the Internet due to the ability to shape public opinion and organise effectively. Authoritarian regimes, on the other hand, seek to stifle democratic movements by employing censorship, algorithmic manipulation, and the exploitation of public discourse through the use of troll armies and bot accounts.