Tecnologie dell'informazione e innovazioni della politica: tredici principi ricavabili dalla lezione dei classici sulla stampa

Over the past twenty years, the global spread of online social networking and communication tools has inspired a lot of research on the connections between media revolutions and political innovations. Whereas in the twentieth century the question of media effects was mainly investigated in psychological and social research, political philosophers have been increasingly engaged in the current debate. Focusing on the hypothesis according to which innovative information and communication technologies imply premises and promises of a new balance of political power, this article aims to clarify its multidimensional nature from the perspective of some of the classic thinkers on politics, with particular reference to the political and cognitive impact of printing technologies. Though only dealing with ideas that were formulated before the twentieth century, the author identifies some general principles and implications applicable to contemporary research concerning the structural changes in political organizing, that we should expect as outcome of the recent evolution of information and communication technologies.