Democrazia e nuove tecnologie: scenari passati e dell’avvenire

The paper is ideally divided in three parts. In the first part, I will refer to some crucial elements presented in a brief dialogue between Mario Calderoni and Gaetano Mosca, published with the title Aristocrazie e Democrazie in Scritti di Mario Calderoni at the very beginning of the 20th century. To start from this work means to cover reflections about democracy over a significant time. In fact, that century witnessed radical changes in relation to democracy, but also unprecedented technological progress. After briefly going through the dialogue between Mosca and Calderoni, I will highlight, in the second part, the strict relationship established between democracy and fundamental rights in order to cope with some problems mentioned by Mosca. In the third part, I will try to understand whether technological progress can contribute to overcoming the actual crisis of democracy. Attention will be paid to the deliberative ability of people as regards some specific and technical issues characterising our technological society. In order to translate into practice some of the theoretical reflections, I will briefly discuss a very technical topic as a case study of democratic decision-making process: human enhancement.