The Square and the Palace. The dark side of disintermediation

This chapter examines some political consequences of the disintermediation process, with particular regard to the role that new technologies have in favoring the mobilization of the streets, especially in undemocratic regimes. It examines some hypotheses that argue that there is a relationship between disintermediation and the return to the scene of “street politics”. Finally, it highlights how disintermediation can also, from this perspective, have a “dark side”: while the new technologies may favor the mobilization of citizens “from below”, they can also deliver powerful tools to authoritarian regimes for the monitoring of dissent and the repression of opponents. The effects of disintermediation on democracy are therefore ambivalent and, indeed, it cannot be excluded that disintermediation may further strengthen the process of weakening democratic institutions.