Digital activism and democratic culture: can digital technologies help save democracy?

This study investigates digital activism and democratic culture among citizens of São Paulo, Brazil. It aims to understand: 01. whether digital participation is becoming a surrogate instance of other forms of participation; and 02. whether digital activists share a specific political culture regarding democratic attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on a representative sample of 2,417 interviews, we apply multivariate analysis techniques to characterize digital activists in terms of political participation and democratic culture. Our findings show that digital participation complements – rather than replaces – other forms of participation. We also found that although the levels of democratic culture among digital-only activists were lower than among activists who participate in several arenas, digital-only activists embrace democratic culture more significantly than non-activists. This finding suggests that digital-only participation could be an important first step in developing democratic attitudes in individuals, albeit this form of participation is not sufficient to foster the highest level of democratic culture.

本研究聚焦巴西圣保罗市民群体中的数字行动主义与民主文化展开探究。研究旨在厘清两大核心议题：其一，数字参与是否正逐步演变为其他参与形式的替代形态；其二，数字行动主义者是否在民主态度与行为维度共享特定的政治文化。本研究依托由2417份访谈构成的代表性样本，运用多变量分析技术，从政治参与与民主文化层面刻画数字行动主义者的群体特征。研究结果显示，数字参与实则对其他参与形式起到补充作用，而非取而代之。此外，研究还发现：尽管仅参与数字行动的行动主义者的民主文化水平低于多领域参与的行动主义者，但相较于非行动主义者，仅参与数字行动的行动主义者对民主文化的接纳程度显著更高。该结论表明，仅参与数字行动或许是个体培育民主态度的重要起步路径，尽管此类参与形式不足以促成最高层级的民主文化养成。