The Fate of Democracy in Digital Dystopias: Dave Eggers’s The Circle and The Every
In the current debate about the condition of contemporary democracies, the role of social media and platform capitalism takes center stage. The shock of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 undermined significantly the optimistic view of digital media. Within a short period...
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| Pubblicato in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas, |
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| Autore principale: | |
| Natura: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lingua: | Anglais |
| Pubblicazione: |
European journal of American studies
2026
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| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Riassunto: | In the current debate about the condition of contemporary democracies, the role of social media and platform capitalism takes center stage. The shock of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 undermined significantly the optimistic view of digital media. Within a short period of time, the utopian vision of networking sites as a foundation of the new non-hierarchical, truly participatory democracy turned into a dystopian critique that deemed social media the main culprit in the present crisis of democratic systems. Dave Eggers’s two dystopian novels, The Circle and The Every, published almost a decade apart, offer an in-depth inquiry into the impact of social media on the shape of democracy. The article analyses Eggers’s representation of platform capitalism and digital democracy in the context of the current debates. The Circle responds to the techno-optimistic vision of digital democracy, which associates citizens’ empowerment with unlimited access to information and greater participation. The Every focuses on the threats posed by the growing power of algorithms and its effect on individuals and society. When examined together, they demonstrate the dangers caused by an unregulated development of platform media and offer an important contribution to the debate about the vulnerable condition of contemporary democracies. |
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