Blockchain: implementacija za demokracijo

Toporkova, Natalia (author), Fink Hafner, Danica (mentor)

The occurrence of new decentralized (distributed) technologies was a groundbreaking event that happened a few years ago and since then, has penetrated many spheres of human activity from simple online transactions to the managerial structures of organizations, eventually, reaching the administrative resources, and the core of democratic system - elections and the process of decision-making. The present research aims to reaffirm or refute the hypothesis that modern democracy is in crisis and new blockchain technologies have a potential to improve the quality of democracy’s performance by many indexes. For this purpose, the present work symbolically was divided into two parts. In the first one, we attempt to analyze the degree of a critical condition the modern democracies are in. The second part is composed of the description of the blockchain technologies and the analysis of several projects that propose to improve a democratic state’s performance. The main findings are: modern democracies do not face acute crisis but definitely are in need of improvements; and the analyzed blockchain projects are capable of addressing the difficulties that challenge a democratic state. More detailed outcomes are still on a way and having a clear answer on their positive effect is a matter of time and a further research.

• Language: English
• Keywords: blockchain, democracy, crisis, decentralize, distributed
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2019
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-107767
• COBISS.SI-ID: 36159069
• Publication date in RUL: 24.05.2019

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Blockchain: applications for democracy

Abstract

Pojav novih decentraliziranih (porazdeljenih) tehnologij je bil prelomni dogodek, ki se je zgodil pred nekaj leti. Od takrat je tehnologija prodrla v številna področja družbenih dejavnosti, od preprostih spletnih transakcij do področja structure vodenja organizacij, ter sčasoma dosega vire upravljanja ter jedro demokratičnega sistema - volitve in proces odločanja. Cilj te raziskave je ponovno potrditi ali ovreči hipotezo, da je sodobna demokracija v krizi in da imajo nove tehnologije veriženja blokov moznost izrazito izboljšati delovanje demokracije. V ta namen je bilo sedanje delo simbolično razdeljeno na dva dela. V prvem delu poskušamo analizirati stopnjo stanja kritičnosti v katerem so sodobne demokracije. Drugi del je sestavljen iz opisa tehnologij veriženja blokov in analize projektov, ki predlagajo izboljšanje uspešnosti demokratične države. Glavne ugotovitve so: sodobne demokracije se ne soočajo s kriticnim kriznim stanjem, vendar so vsekakor potrebne izboljšave na tem področju; analizirani projekti tehnologij veriženja blokov ponujajo možnosti in rešitve za izzive, ki zadevajo demokratično državo. Podrobnejši rezultati o njihovem pozitivnem učinku so še vedno vprašanje časa ter predmet nadaljnih raziskav. Ključne besede: blokchain, demokracija, kriza, decentraliziran, porazdeljen.

• Keywords: blokchain, demokracija, kriza, decentraliziran, porazdeljen