Scenario 5:
The Corporate Commons
Tech companies govern, parliaments sidelined
In this challenging future, parliaments have failed to adapt to the digital age, leaving a vacuum that powerful global tech companies have eagerly filled. These corporations, leveraging their superior AI capabilities and reach, become the de facto providers of essential public services, dispute resolution, and even platforms for collective action and rights protection. Citizens, seeking efficient solutions, increasingly rely on these corporate "commons," bypassing traditional democratic structures entirely. This displaces parliament's role, raising profound questions about sovereignty, accountability, and the nature of public good when managed by private interests.
Examples:
"OmniGov Platforms" for Everything: A dominant tech company, "OmniGov Platforms," provides citizens with all-in-one digital identities, access to healthcare, education, and even a "Digital Citizen Court" for dispute resolution. Parliaments, struggling to provide comparable services, find their public relevance diminishing as citizens turn to the more efficient corporate alternative.
Corporate-Managed Rights: When a citizen feels their rights have been violated (e.g., privacy, free speech online), they don't appeal to parliament or a national court. Instead, they use a dedicated "Rights Protection" feature on a major social platform or an "Ethical AI" arbiter provided by a tech giant, whose decisions become the accepted norm.
Policy by Platform: Tech companies, through their control of essential digital infrastructure, implicitly set standards for public behavior, data usage, and even social discourse. They "regulate" through algorithms and terms of service, effectively creating a parallel system of governance that parliaments struggle to influence or oversee.
"Citizen Action" through Apps: Instead of traditional lobbying or voting through electoral systems, citizens organize and collectively influence decisions through features within a major tech platform, which then aggregates their preferences and presents them directly to the Executive or international bodies, completely bypassing the national legislature.
