Algorithmic Institutionalism: The Changing Rules of Social and Political Life

Algorithmic Institutionalism is the first book to conceive algorithms as institutions in contemporary societies, focusing on different dimensions of how they structure decision-making and enact power relations. In many situations in contemporary societies, algorithms structure social interactions, resulting in patterns of action and human behavior in collective contexts. Almeida, Filgueiras, and Mendonca discuss how algorithms are gradually occupying an institutional space in societies, deciding on different aspects of social life and shaping collective and individual human behaviors.

As institutions, algorithms work as decision systems that define what is allowed, hindered, facilitated, or made impossible as well as positions within society’s organizational structures. Algorithmic institutionalism uses the perspective of institutional theories to explain the functioning of these decision systems and how they establish patterns and norms that affect human behavior and lead to deep changes in contemporary society. The book points to the challenges of political orders that are gradually institutionalized with algorithms, comprising new dynamics of interaction between humans and machines. These disruptive dynamics of interaction between humans and machines create new challenges related to the democratization of algorithms and the impasses that emerge with technological advancement through digital technologies.

Providing an analytical framework for an adequate comprehension of the social and political implications of algorithmic systems, Algorithmic institutionalism applies this framework to make sense of recommendation systems, the platformization of governments, and the deployment of algorithms in security. It then addresses the challenge of developing approaches to democratize the new political order influenced by the global expansion of algorithmic decision-making, pointing to key democratic values that are relevant once we consider the construction of legitimate decisions in contemporary societies.

Ricardo Fabrino Mendonca, Associate Professor, Federal University of Goiás, Virgilio Almeida, Professor Emeritus, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Fernando Filgueiras, Associate Professor, Federal University of Goiás

Ricardo F. Mendonça is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil (Brazil). He is a Research Fellow at the Brazilian National Institute for Digital Democracy (INCT.DD) and the coordinator of Margem (Research Group on Democracy and Justice). He holds fellowships from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas (Fapemig). Mendonça’s recent publications include Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2022) and Deliberative Systems in Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2019).

Fernando Filgueiras is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Science, Federal University of Goiás (UFG), and Professor of PHD Professional Program in Public Policy, National School of Public Administration (ENAP). He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro (Iuperj), and served as a director for Research and Graduate Studies of the National School of Public Administration (ENAP), Brazil.

Virgilio Almeida is a faculty associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and has a PhD in computer science from Vanderbilt University. He is also a Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Almeida was the National Secretary for Information Technology Policies of the Brazilian government from 2011 to 2015. He was the chair of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) from 2011 to 2016, and was also the chair of NETmundial, the Global Multistakeholder Conference on the Future of Internet Governance, held in São Paulo, Brazil in 2014. He was one of the commissioners of the Global Commission for the Stability of Cyberspace (cyberstability.org).