Citizen in the streams of digitalization: Collisions of politics and culture

Modern flows of digitalization in various spheres of life form new configurations of social and business ties between the state and society. In fact, the current level of digital communications initiates a new chronopolitical cycle of global development. However, its specific forms depend on the strategies of the ruling political regimes, within which these processes not only generate new structures and mechanisms of power and public administration, but also resonate in the sphere of culture, in mental constructs and living standards of citizens. In the context of various strategies of the ruling regimes that focus on distancing citizens from the decision-making process, on communication with business or on strengthening national identification models, versions of the cultural evolution of civil society are also significantly modified. Responses and developments in the cultural body of the state and civil society are conditioned by various trends in the use of digital technologies. In turn, the actual political trend of digitalization mainly supports the authorities’ desire to take control of those forms of challenging their positions that can provoke a crisis of legitimization, shake the stability of their dominant position. In hybrid regimes and countries of unintended authoritarianism, digital technologies are used to strengthen political and administrative control over citizens’ sociopolitical activity and territorial movements, their discursive practices and deliberative arenas. Such forms of reproduction of the main information and political mechanisms of government, as well as the strengthening of control functions in the public sphere and mass discourse, not only preserve the fragmented nature of subcultural communications, but also support the spread of paternalistic and conformist attitudes in society, create advantages for traditionalist and paternalistic values. In Russia, the digitalization of politics preserves the old fractures in the domestic cultural body, maintaining the standards of confrontational discourse and hindering the enrichment of the value experience of a Russian citizen. Preservation of the established political realities in the medium term retains risks for maintaining constructive communications between the state and society, hinders free forms of enrichment and development of civic culture, and the spread of ideals and values of democracy. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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