The Anti-Democratic Counterrevolution of Surveillance Capitalism
Book Review: Zuboff S. (2025) Nadzornyy kapitalizm ili demokratiya? [Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy?], Moscow: The Gaidar Institute Press (in Russian). 360 p.
Abstract
Digital technologies are not only transforming the nature of the contemporary economy and society, but also challenging the democratic order, as we know it. In her new work ‘Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy?’ American scholar Shoshana Zuboff expands upon the ideas developed in her bestseller ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ and arrives at even more alarming conclusions about the political future of digital society. The largest technology corporations illegally and secretly collect vast amounts of user data, which they then use to turn human behavior into a commodity. People are deprived of their ‘epistemic rights,’ which results in corporate algorithms knowing more about them than they know about themselves. The techno-oligarchy uses this knowledge to consolidate its power and erode the democratic order. Zuboff argues that surveillance capitalism undermines the principles of liberal democracy by stripping citizens of political sovereignty and turning citizens into obedient executors of algorithms that manipulate the behavior of the masses for the benefit of the new digital oligarchy. To counter the political power of surveillance capitalism and defend democracy, Zuboff proposes eliminating the very condition that enabled its rise in the early 21st century: the uncontrolled and covert collection of users’ personal data by technology companies. Zuboff argues that democratic governments must safeguard user privacy and protect personal data to prevent corporations from commodifying human behavior through unchecked algorithms. Today, humanity must choose between surveillance capitalism and democracy. Zuboff argues that the democratic order cannot endure the long-term expansion of surveillance capitalism. Either surveillance capitalism will undermine democracy, or the democratic order will resist the techno-oligarchy and protect citizens’ rights in the digital age.
