Digital transformation, social ranking, and the future of statehood in the time of the “Great Reset”
##plugins.pubIds.doi.readerDisplayName##:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1370Gako-hitzak:
algorithmic governance, digital profile, social credit system, social control, surveillance stateLaburpena
Digital technologies used to identify, profile, and supervise are often hailed as the serendipitous results of inevitable progress, while the long-term consequences of their application remain beyond the attention of lawyers and politicians. This article tries to close this gap by exploring and discussing probable effects of the application of such technologies for the present model of statehood and legal order. It examines the hypothesis that the ubiquitous digitalisation of governance and the increasing attention to individuals’ reputation in the provision of public services are related to the attempt of contemporary corporate elites to perpetuate their power and resolve the problem of building a new, post-capitalist social order. The article argues that the expansion of social control through digital technologies can lead to a gradual loss of constitutional subjectivity and political power by people.
##plugins.generic.usageStats.downloads##
Metrics
Downloads:
13_2_Rouvinsky_OSLS (English) 347
XML_13_2_Rouvinsky_OSLS (English) 64
Erreferentziak
Ahmed, S., 2019. The messy truth about social credit. Logic [online], 7. Available from: https://logicmag.io/china/the-messy-truth-about-social-credit/ [Access 16 February 2022].
Amadeu da Silveira S., 2021. A hipótese do colonialismo de dados e o neoliberalismo. In: J.F. Cassino, J. Souza and S. Amadeu da Silveira, eds., Colonialismo de dados: como opera a trincheira algorítmica na guerra neoliberal. São Paulo: Autonomia Literária, 33–52.
Arsène, S., 2019. China’s social credit system: A chimera with real claws. Notes de l’Ifri. Asie Visions [online], 110. Available from: https://www.ifri.org/fr/publications/notes-de-lifri/asie-visions/chinas-social-credit-system-chimera-real-claws [Access 16 February 2022].
Auken, I., 2016. Here’s how life could change in my city by the year 2030 [online]. 11 November. World Economic Forum. Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20210330234809/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/how-life-could-change-2030/ [Access 16 February 2022].
Bach, J., 2020. The red and the black: China’s social credit experiment as a total test environment. British Journal of Sociology, 71(3), 489–502. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12748
Backer, L.C., and McQuilla, M., 2020. The algorithmic law of business and human rights: constructing a private transnational law of ratings, social credit, and accountability measures [online]. 1 September. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3684196
2139/ssrn.3684196 [Access 16 February 2022].
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2021. Digitization for Improved Governance: Financial Services for the Poor [online]. August. Available from: https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/documents/digitization_for_improved_governance_financial_services_for_the_poor.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
Calhoun, C., 2013. What threatens capitalism now? In Does Capitalism Have a Future? In: I. Wallerstein et al., eds., Does Capitalism Have a Future? Oxford University Press, 131–161.
Cantor, R., and Packer, F., 1994. The credit rating industry. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Quarterly Review, 19(2), 1–26.
Carroll, W.K., 2010. The Making of Transnational Capitalist Class: Corporate Power in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Zed Books. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350223257
Catanzariti, M., 2021. Algorithmic law: Law production by data or data production by law? In: H.W. Micklitz et al., eds., Constitutional Challenges in the Algorithmic Society. Cambridge University Press, 78–92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914857.006
Chen, Y.J., Lin, C.F., and Liu, H.W., 2018. “Rule of trust”: The power and perils of China’s social credit megaproject. Columbia Journal of Asian Law, 32(1), 1–36.
Clark, J., et al., 2016b. Digital Identity: Towards Shared Principles for Public and Private Sector Cooperation [online]. Discussion paper. Washington, DC: World Bank Group/London: GSMA/Paris: Secure Identity Alliance. Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24920/Digital0identi0e0sector0cooperation.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
Creemers, R., 2018. China’s social credit system: An evolving practice of control [online]. 9 May. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3175792 [Access 16 February 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3175792
Dai, X., 2020. Toward a reputation state: A comprehensive view of China’s Social Credit System project. In: O. Everling, ed., Social Credit Rating: Reputation und Vertrauen beurteilen. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler, 139-163. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29653-7_7
Davidson, A., 2020. #Moralstoo: The film industry must implement an international moral clause. Southwestern Journal of International Law, 26(2), 376-395.
Delanty, G., 2019. The future of capitalism: Trends, scenarios and prospects for the future. Journal of Classical Sociology [online], 19(1), 10-26. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795X18810569 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795X18810569
Divan, S., 2019. Aadhaar’s biometric tsunami: Will it sweep away privacy, drown civil liberties? In: R. Khera, ed., Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother. Hyderabad: Orient Black Swan.
Dolan, K.A., and Peterson-Withorn, C., eds., 2021. World’s billionaires list: The richest in 2021. Forbes [online]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/ [Access 16 February 2022].
Donaldson, J., and Fafaliou, I., 2003. Business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance: A review and summary critique. European Research Studies, 6(1-2), 90–110.
Dror, Y., 2001. The Capacity to Govern: A Report to the Club of Rome. London: Frank Cass.
Drucker, H.M., 1974. The Political Uses of Ideology. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02096-6
Ebers, M., 2020. Regulating AI and robotics: Ethical and regulatory challenges. In: M. Ebers and S. Navas, eds., Algorithms and Law. Cambridge University Press, 37–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108347846.003
Eisenegger, M., 2009. Trust and reputation in the age of globalization. In: J. Klewes and R. Wreschniok, eds., Reputation Capital: Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century. Berlin: Springer, 11–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01630-1_2
Ellis, E., 2017. The strategic context of China’s advance in Latin America: An update. Note d’actualité de l’Observatoire de la Chine no. 17/24 [online]. April. Paris: Maison de la Recherche de l’Inalco. Available from: https://centreasia.hypotheses.org/files/2017/08/17-Ellis-Ame%CC%81rique-Latine_180417.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
Fernández Durán, R., 2012. The Breakdown of Global Capitalism: 2000–2030. Madrid: Libros en Acción.
Floridi, L., 2014. The 4th Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford University Press.
Foucault, M., 2009. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collѐge de France, 1977-78. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Goldman, E., 2011. Regulating reputation. In: H. Masum and M. Tovey, eds., The Reputation Society: How Online Opinions are Reshaping the Offline World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 51–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8777.003.0010
Gramsci, A., 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York: International Publishers.
Grönlund, Å., and Horan, T.A., 2005. Introducing e-Gov: History, definitions, and issues. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 15, 713–730. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.01539
Guichard, J., 2017. In the name of the people: Disagreeing over peoplehood in the North and South Korean constitutions. Asian Journal of Law and Society [online], 4(2), 405–445. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/als.2016.59 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/als.2016.59
Han, B.C., 2017. In the Swarm: Digital Prospects. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11055.001.0001
Hardt, M., and Negri, A., 2000. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674038325
Hobbes, T., 1909. Leviathan. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Originally published in 1651).
Jardine, B., 2019. China’s surveillance state has eyes on Central Asia. Foreign Policy [online], 15 November. Available from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/15/huawei-xinjiang-kazakhstan-uzbekistan-china-surveillance-state-eyes-central-asia/ [Access 16 February 2022].
Jessop, B., 2016. The State: Past, Present, Future. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Karippacheril, G., et al., eds., 2016. Bringing Government into the 21st Century: The Korean Digital Governance Experience [online]. Washington, DC: World Bank. Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24579/9781464808814.pdf [Access 16 February 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0881-4
Khera, R., 2019. Aadhaar and privacy. In: R. Khera, ed., Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother. Hyderabad: Orient Black Swan.
Klein, N., 2007. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Kochhar, R., 2021. The pandemic stalls growth in the global middle class, pushes poverty up sharply [online]. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Available from: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/03/18/the-pandemic-stalls-growth-in-the-global-middle-class-pushes-poverty-up-sharply/ [Access 16 February 2022].
König, P.D., 2020. Dissecting the algorithmic Leviathan: On the socio-political anatomy of algorithmic governance. Philosophy & Technology, 33, 467–485. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-019-00363-w
Kostka, G., and Antoine, L., 2020. Fostering model citizenship: Behavioral responses to China’s emerging social credit systems. Policy & Internet, 12(3), 256–289. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.213
Kranzberg, M., 1986. Technology and history: “Kranzberg’s laws”. Technology and Culture, 27(3), 544–560. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2021.0008
Lenin, V.I., 1963. May Day action by the revolutionary proletariat. In: V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 19. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 218–227.
Lenin, V.I., 1985. State and Revolution. New York: International Publishers.
Lobao, L., et al., 2018. The shrinking state? Understanding the assault on the public sector. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 11(3), 389–408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsy026
Mac Síthigh, D., and Siems, M., 2019. The Chinese social credit system: A model for other countries? Modern Law Review, 82(6), 1034–1071. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12462
Machiavelli, N., 1961. Il Principe. Turin: Einaudi.
Meadows, D.H., et al., 1972. The Limits to Growth: A Report to the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe Books. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/ddlp.1
Menon Sen, K., 2020. From Aadhaar to Aarogya Setu: How surveillance technology is devaluing India’s democratic rights. Scroll.in [online], 25 April. Available from: https://scroll.in/article/960137/from-aadhaar-to-aarogya-setu-how-surveillance-technology-is-devaluing-indias-democratic-rights [Access 16 February 2022].
Newmark, C., 2011. Foreword: trust, reputation systems, and the immune system of democracy. In: H. Masum and M. Tovey, eds., The Reputation Society: How Online Opinions are Reshaping the Offline World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, ix–xi. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8777.003.0001
Ouedraogo, R., and Sy, A.N.R., 2020. Can Digitalization Help Deter Corruption in Africa? IMF Working Paper No. 2020/068 [online]. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund. Available from: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2020/05/29/Can-Digitalization-Help-Deter-Corruption-in-Africa-49385 [Access 16 February 2022].
Pay, V.N., 2019. Comparative constitutionalism: Challenges of constitutional sovereignty in Iran and Iraq. Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 13(1), 123–141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/25765949.2019.1586184
Polovinko, V., and Dudarova, F., 2020. Neslavjanskij interfejs [Non-Slavic interface]. Novaya Gazeta [online], 22 June. Available from: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/06/19/85924-plyus-tsifrovizatsiya-migrantov [Access 16 February 2022] (in Russian).
Randers, J., 2012. 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Rao, U., and Nair, V., 2019. Aadhaar: governing with biometrics. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 42(3), 469–481. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2019.1595343
Robinson, W.I., 2012. Global capitalism theory and the emergence of transnational elites. Critical Sociology, 38(3), 349–363. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920511411592
Robinson, W.I., 2018. The next economic crisis: digital capitalism and global police state. Race & Class [online], 60(1), 77–92. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818769016 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818769016
Rodota, S., 2011. Renforcement et développement de nouvelles applications informatiques de surveillance et de contrôle. Terminal [online], 108-109, 9–16. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4000/terminal.1288 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/terminal.1288
Rosengrün, S., 2022. Why AI is a threat to the rule of law. Digital Society [online], 1(10). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-022-00011-5 [Access 19 October 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-022-00011-5
Roth, S., 2021. The Great Reset. Restratification for lives, livelihoods, and the planet. Technological Forecasting & Social Change [online], 166, 120636, 1–8. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120636 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120636
Rouvroy, A., 2018. Homo juridicus est-il soluble dans les données? In: C. de Terwangne et al., eds., Law, Norms and Freedoms in Cyberspace (Droit, Normes et Libertés dans le Cybermonde). Brussels: Larcier, 417-444.
Saran, S., Chapman, T., and Sharma, M., 2018. A New Social Contract for the Digital Age [online]. Available from: https://www.g20-insights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/A-New-Social-Contract-for-the-Digital-Age-Vision-Brief-ORF-4-10-18-TC_Edits-3.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
Schaefer, K., et al., 2019. Understanding China’s Social Credit System [online]. Beijing: Trivium China. Available from: https://socialcredit.triviumchina.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Understanding-Chinas-Social-Credit-System-Trivium-China-20190923.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
Schmitt, C., 2003. Staat al ein konkreter, an eine geschichtliche Epoche gebundener Begriff. In: C. Schmitt, Verfassungsrechtliche Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1924–1954. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 375–385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-41329-4
Schwab, K., and Malleret, T., 2020. COVID-19: The Great Reset [online]. Cologne/Geneva: Forum. Available from: http://reparti.free.fr/schwab2020.pdf [Access 16 December 2022].
Sharma, R., 2021. The billionaire boom: how the super-rich soaked up Covid cash. Financial Times [online], 14 May. Available from: https://www.ft.com/content/747a76dd-f018-4d0d-a9f3-4069bf2f5a93 [Access 16 February 2022].
Sklair, L., 2018. The transnational capitalist class. In: A. Farazmand, ed., Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Cham: Springer, 5999–6002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20928-9_2761
Supiot, A., 2017. Governance by Numbers: The Making of a Legal Model of Allegiance. Oxford: Hart.
Sylla, R., 2002. An historical primer on the business of credit rating. In: R.M. Levich, C. Majnoni and C. Reinhart, eds., Ratings, Rating Agencies and the Global Financial System. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 19–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0999-8_2
von Blomberg, M., 2018. The social credit system and China’s rule of law. Mapping China Journal [online], 2, 77–162. Available from: https://mappingchina.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MCJ-No-2-2018-Blomberg.pdf [Access 16 December 2022].
von Weizsäcker, E.U., and Wijkman, A., 2018. Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population, and the Destruction of the Planet: A Report to the Club of Rome [online]. New York: Springer. Available from: https://filipmalinowski.net/Club_Of_Rome-report-2018_ComeOn.pdf [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7419-1
Wallerstein, I., 1974. The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
Wallerstein, I., 2013. Structural crisis, or why capitalists may no longer find capitalism rewarding. In: I. Wallerstein et al., eds., Does Capitalism Have a Future? Oxford University Press, 9–35.
Waqar Hasib, S., 2004. The Iranian Constitution: An exercise in contradictions. The Fletcher School Online Journal for issues related to Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization [online]. Spring. Available from: https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/aln/aln_spring04/aln_spring04a.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
World Bank, 2016. Digital Government 2020: Prospects for Russia [online]. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24402/Digital0govern0prospects0for0Russia.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
World Bank, 2018. Technology Landscape for Digital Identification [online]. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/31825/Technology-Landscape-for-Digital-Identification.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
World Economic Forum (WEF), 2016. A Blueprint for Digital Identity [online]. Geneva: WEF: Available from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_A_Blueprint_for_Digital_Identity.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
World Economic Forum (WEF), 2018. Identity in a Digital World: A New Chapter in the Social Contract [online]. Geneva: WEF. Available from: https://www.weforum.org/reports/identity-in-a-digital-world-a-new-chapter-in-the-social-contract [Access 16 February 2022].
World Economic Forum (WEF), 2020. Annual Report 2019–2020 [online]. Geneva: WEF. Available from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Annual_Report_2019_2020.pdf [Access 16 February 2022].
Xenidis, R., 2020. Tuning EU equality law to algorithmic discrimination: Three pathways to resilience. Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law [online], 27(6), 736–758. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X20982173 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X20982173
Yeung, K., 2017. ‘Hypernudge’: Big Data as a mode of regulation by design. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 118–136. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1186713
Yu, K., 2020. Towards graduated citizenship: A study of social credit systems in China. Critique: a worldwide student journal of politics [online], 28–55. Available from: https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/about.illinoisstate.edu/dist/e/34/files/2020/09/FINAL-2-Graduated-Citizenship-A-Study-of-Social-Credit-Systems-in-China.pdf [Access 13 October 2022].
Yu, Q., 2020. Suanfa xingzheng: shehui xinyong tixi zhili fanshi ji qi fazhi hua [Algorithmic administration: The governance paradigm of the social credit system and its legalization]. Faxue Luntan [online], 2, 36–49. Available from: http://fzzfyjy.cupl.edu.cn/info/1035/11847.htm [Access 16 February 2022] (in Chinese).
Yu, R., and Ali, G.S., 2019. What’s inside the black box? AI challenges for lawyers and researchers. Legal Information Management [online], 19(1), 2–13. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1472669619000021 [Access 16 December 2022]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1472669619000021
Zuboff, S., 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: Public Affairs.
##submission.downloads##
Argitaratuta
##submission.howToCite##
Zenbakia
Atala
##submission.license##
##submission.copyrightStatement##
##submission.license.cc.by-nc-nd4.footer##OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence, further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.