The digital age, featuring the virtual dimension of the world, significantly impacts democracy, dealing with electoral systems, political representations and citizens’ participation. The Internet revolution has scaled up and speeded up the pace of transformation of political organization, participation, information and engagement, weakening the role of intermediate structures.

Democracy in the digital age draws the tension between individuals and society, institutions and bodies, and between rights and duties, especially in critical situation like health emergency. Digital evolution is supposed to support the SDG objective 16 not diverging, as it might appear, from a respectable sustainable development of human rights.

This aim is gaining a better understanding favouring a shared view of how to address the challenges posed by digital technologies in order to broaden and strengthen citizens’ participation and to build effective, accountable and transparent democratic institutions.

Home of the Forum is the magnificent island of San Giorgio in Venice, site of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. Venice was chosen for its historical importance in electoral processes. The term “ballot” comes from the “balote” used to cast votes in the election of the Doge during the Republic of Venice. The electoral system of the Doge was probably the longest lasting of humanity, having been in force without change for more than five centuries from 1268 to 1797 and being a milestone of “voting theory”.

With the contribution of high-level experts and government representatives from around the world, the conference will address the following issues: managing speed and scale of digital with the policy making process, considering the current ecosystem of analogue institutions; analysis of guarantees, limitations, obligations, privacy, transparency in the changing scenario; overview of what has been tried and which lessons have been learned; hypothesis for the future.