A synergetic cities view on the crisis of democracy in the age of cities

We suggest seeing the crisis of democracy as a consequence of the age of cities in conjunction with several interrelated structural developments, specifically privatization, globalization and the 4th Industrial Revolution (termed also Industry 4.0). Examining these developments from the perspective of complexity theory and our synergetic cities approach (Haken and Portugali 2021), we show how urbanization in conjunction with the above three developments has destabilized democratic societies by splitting their national urban systems and societies into two stands with a communication gap between them: Highly dynamic “smart” global cities and societies with their fast pace of life, inclining toward “less-democratic liberalism,” versus local-national cities and societies, with their traditional economy and slow pace of life, with inclination toward “less-liberal democracy.”