Whole-Process People’s Democracy Empowered by Digital-Intelligence Technology and the Prevention of Its Risks

The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC pointed out that “whole-process people’s democracy is the essential attribute of socialist democratic politics, the most extensive, most genuine, and most effective democracy.” The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made the development of whole-process people’s democracy one of the “seven focal points.” The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, which adopted the “Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development,” proposed that during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period “the institutionalization, standardization, and proceduralization of whole-process people’s democracy will be further raised,” and stressed “deepening the construction of digital China … strengthening the integration of artificial intelligence with industrial development, cultural-ethical progress, public welfare, and social governance, seizing the high ground in AI industrial applications, and empowering all industries in all directions.” In recent years, digital-intelligence technology has become a representative achievement of the new round of the technological revolution. It is an organic combination of digital technology and intelligent technology, deeply embedded in and influencing the production and living modes and governance structures of society. The “State Council Opinion on Deeply Implementing the ‘AI+’ Action” points out: “Safely, securely, and orderly promote the application of artificial intelligence in government affairs, creating a new model of government services that precisely identifies needs, proactively plans services, and handles the entire process intelligently.” Empowering whole-process people’s democracy with digital-intelligence technology is both a requirement of the times for the deep integration of science and technology with social life and a key strategic choice for advancing the construction of socialist democratic politics through digital-intelligence transformation. Digital-intelligence technology possesses characteristics such as data self-evolution, intelligent emergence, real-time response, and dynamic adaptation. The organic integration of its application mechanisms with the value norms of whole-process people’s democracy can enhance the breadth, depth, precision, and effectiveness of democratic participation, demonstrating that whole-process people’s democracy is “a democracy of the full chain, all-round, and full coverage.” However, the instrumental character of digital-intelligence technology means it has both utility and destructiveness. This “double-edged sword” effect, while bringing new efficiency to democratic political construction and national governance, also leads to risks and challenges such as technologism weakening the essence of democracy and the technological divide causing insufficient democratic participation. Taking historical materialism as the basic theoretical perspective, deeply exploring the internal relationship between digital-intelligence technology and whole-process people’s democracy, grasping the opportunities and challenges of digital-intelligence technology empowering whole-process people’s democracy, and proposing optimization paths are unavoidable real-world issues in the process of comprehensively promoting high-quality economic and social development and the modernization of national governance.

党的二十大报告指出，“全过程人民民主是社会主义民主政治的本质属性，是最广泛、最真实、最管用的民主”。党的二十届三中全会将发展全过程人民民主作为“七个聚焦”之一。党的二十届四中全会通过的《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划的建议》提出，“十五五”时期“全过程人民民主制度化、规范化、程序化水平进一步提高”，并强调“深入推进数字中国建设……加强人工智能同产业发展、文化建设、民生保障、社会治理相结合，抢占人工智能产业应用制高点，全方位赋能千行百业”。近年来，数智技术成为新一轮科技革命的代表性成果，是数字化与智能化技术的有机结合，深度嵌入和影响了社会的生产生活方式和治理结构。《国务院关于深入实施“人工智能+”行动的意见》指出：“安全稳妥有序推进人工智能在政务领域应用，打造精准识别需求、主动规划服务、全程智能办理的政务服务新模式。”以数智技术赋能全过程人民民主既是科学技术与社会生活深度融合的时代要求，也是通过数智化转型推动社会主义民主政治建设的关键战略选择。数智技术具有数据自演、智能涌现、实时响应、动态适配等特点，其应用机制与全过程人民民主的价值规范有机结合，能够增强民主参与的广度、深度、精度和效度，彰显全过程人民民主是“全链条、全方位、全覆盖的民主”。然而，数智技术的工具性特征意味着它兼具有用性与破坏性。这种“双刃剑”效应在为民主政治建设与国家治理带来新效能的同时，也导致了唯技术主义削弱民主本质、技术鸿沟造成民主参与不足等风险挑战。以唯物史观为基本理论视域，深入探究数智技术与全过程人民民主之间的内在关联，把握数智技术赋能全过程人民民主的机遇与挑战，并提出优化路径，是在全面推进经济社会高质量发展和国家治理现代化进程中不可回避的现实议题。

I. Strategic Opportunities for Digital-Intelligence Technology to Empower Whole-Process People’s Democracy

一、数智技术赋能全过程人民民主的战略机遇

Digital-intelligence technology is a composite concept that deeply integrates digital technology and artificial intelligence. Its core lies in achieving automated decision-making and efficiency enhancement through data-driven and intelligent algorithms. By reshaping the spatiotemporal structure, participation forms, and institutional procedures of democratic practice, digital-intelligence technology is creating a democratic practice mode with Chinese characteristics. This is inseparable from the epochal opportunities brought by the technological revolution drive, national strategic goals, and the demands of people’s livelihood and public opinion. “Whole-process people’s democracy pursues a high-efficiency democracy built on the foundation of a new technological revolution.” Under new strategic opportunities, digital-intelligence technology has given rise to a new paradigm of democratic form, improved the new efficiency of democratic governance, and broadened new channels for democratic participation. Its essence is the concrete expression of Marxist thought on people’s democracy in the digital-intelligence era, embodying the dialectical unity of technological instrumental rationality and democratic value rationality.

数智技术是数字技术与人工智能深度融合的复合概念，核心在于通过数据驱动与智能算法实现自动化决策与效能提升。数智技术通过重塑民主实践的时空结构、参与形式与制度程序，正在创造具有中国特色的民主实践方式。这离不开技术革命驱动、国家战略目标、民生民意诉求所带来的时代契机。“全过程人民民主所追求的是一种建立在新技术革命基础上的高效率民主”，在新的战略机遇下，数智技术催生了民主形态新范式、提高了民主治理新效能、拓宽了民主参与新渠道，其本质是马克思主义人民民主思想在数智时代的具象化表达，体现了技术工具理性与民主价值理性的辩证统一。

(I) Digital-Intelligence Technology Gives Rise to a New Paradigm of Democratic Form

（一）数智技术催生民主形态新范式

Historical materialism shows that technological revolution drives social development: “the technical basis of modern industry is revolutionary.” As “science is increasingly consciously applied to technology,” the level of social labor productivity continuously advances, requiring relations of production and the superstructure to adapt accordingly. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed to “improve the systems and mechanisms for developing new quality productive forces in accordance with local conditions.” As a revolutionary technological innovation, digital-intelligence technology is reconfiguring the allocation mode of productive factors and also demands new forms of relations of production and superstructure that are more compatible with it. The whole-process people’s democracy system, as an important component of China’s political superstructure, organically integrates with big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality technology, blockchain, and other digital-intelligence technologies in the technological revolution, forming a new paradigm of democratic form.

唯物史观表明，技术革命对社会发展具有推动作用，“现代工业的技术基础是革命的”。随着“科学日益被自觉地应用于技术方面”，社会劳动生产力水平不断进步，这要求生产关系和上层建筑与之相适应。党的二十届三中全会提出，“健全因地制宜发展新质生产力体制机制”。数智技术作为革命性技术创新，正在重新整合生产要素的配置方式，也要求与其更加相适应的生产关系和上层建筑新形态。全过程人民民主制度体系作为中国政治上层建筑的重要组成部分，在技术革命中与大数据、人工智能、虚拟现实技术、区块链等数智技术有机结合，形成民主形态新范式。

In the process of democratic operation, the linking of democratic links, the participation of democratic subjects, and the integration of democratic issues are coordinated through digital-intelligence technology. In linking democratic links, big data and algorithmic technology possess the ability to store, process, identify, and capture data with high efficiency, meeting the precise operational requirements of democratic elections, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic oversight. In the participation of democratic subjects, digital media combine the functions of social interaction and virtual reality, transforming traditional offline “face-to-face” democratic interaction into terminal interaction, expanding the democratic practice space for broad and orderly participation by multiple subjects. Digital media also greatly reduce the cost of democratic participation for multiple subjects. Users participate in real-time consultation, deliberation, and government oversight through digital terminal media such as Weibo, WeChat, short videos, and digital newspapers. In integrating democratic issues, big data and cloud computing integrate relevant democratic issues by efficiently screening information resources, performing professional classification and relevance analysis of issues, and presenting issues with high social attention first for inclusion in the scope of democratic consultation and democratic decision-making. “The ‘second-level law’ inherent in big data shows high time sensitivity in data processing, effectively reducing the ‘potential difference’ in political information dissemination, and can provide analysis results for data requests and processing within a second-level time range,” thereby helping the government and decision-makers quickly identify the hot and difficult issues that are the focus of broad internet users and the urgent concerns of the people.

民主运行过程中，民主环节链接、民主主体参与以及民主议题整合通过数智技术实现相互协同。在民主环节链接上，大数据和算法技术具有对数据进行储存、处理、鉴别、抓取等高效度整合能力，符合民主选举、民主协商、民主决策、民主管理、民主监督的精准运行要求。在民主主体参与上，数字媒介兼具社会交往和虚拟现实的功能，让传统的线下“面对面”民主交往转化为终端互动，拓展多元主体广泛有序参与的民主实践空间。数字媒介还大大降低了多元主体民主参与的成本，用户通过微博、微信、短视频、数字报纸等数字终端媒介，实时参与协商议事和对政府的监督。在民主议题整合上，大数据和云计算以信息资源高效筛选的方式整合相关民主议题，对议题进行专业化分类和相关度分析，将具有社会关注度高的议题先行呈现并纳入民主协商和民主决策的范围内。“大数据内蕴的‘秒级定律’表现出对数据处理的高度时间敏感性，有效降低了政治信息传播的‘势位差’，可在秒级时间范围内对数据的请求和处理给出分析结果”，从而有利于政府和决策者迅速锚定广大网络用户聚焦关注和人民群众急难愁盼的热点难点问题。

(II) Digital-Intelligence Technology Improves the New Efficiency of Democratic Governance

（二）数智技术提高民主治理新效能

In recent years, China’s digital-intelligence technology transformation has been deeply aligned with national strategic goals. Digital-intelligence technology has injected new vitality into the systems and mechanisms for promoting high-quality economic development and provided new methods for modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity. The “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively and Advancing Chinese-Path Modernization” included “accelerating the construction of systems and mechanisms to promote the development of the digital economy, and improving the policy system for promoting digital industrialization and industrial digitalization” as a national strategic goal. Digital-intelligence technology is increasingly becoming a new driving force for Chinese-path modernization. As an essential requirement of Chinese-path modernization, whole-process people’s democracy needs to be fully integrated with digital-intelligence technology to improve the precision and effectiveness of its democratic governance practice.

近年来，中国的数智技术变革与国家战略目标导向深度契合，数智技术为健全推动经济高质量发展体制机制注入了新活力，为推动国家治理体系和治理能力现代化提供了新方法。《中共中央关于进一步全面深化改革 推进中国式现代化的决定》将“加快构建促进数字经济发展体制机制，完善促进数字产业化和产业数字化政策体系”列入国家战略目标，数智技术日益成为推动中国式现代化的新动能。全过程人民民主作为中国式现代化的本质要求，其民主治理实践的精度和效力的提高需要与数智技术充分结合。

Digital-intelligence technology improves the “deep effectiveness” of democratic governance. Democratic governance at the national level breaks through the boundaries of time and space; at the government level, it saves operational costs; at the social level, it effectively resolves the dilemma of fairness and efficiency. New digital-intelligence platforms such as the National Government Service Platform are deeply embedded in the national governance system, forming a new form of democratic governance in dual spatiotemporal fields of reality and virtuality. “Digital technology has become an important medium for expanding the spatial scope of the public sphere, making the form of the public sphere more flexible and variable, exhibiting open, borderless, and continuous characteristics.” Furthermore, multiple digital-intelligence technologies empower governance modernization, achieving a precise transformation from experience-based decision-making to data-based decision-making. Big data analysis can help the government understand public needs more precisely, reducing the cost of repeated policy experiments caused by incomplete information collection. At the same time, while processing large amounts of decentralized, diversified, and fragmented information, digital-intelligence technology can completely retain and store the sources of information and processing procedures in the background, ensuring the openness and transparency of democratic governance.

数智技术提高了民主治理的“深度效能”。国家层面的民主治理突破了时空边界，政府层面的民主治理节约了运行成本，社会层面的民主治理使公平与效率的难题得到有效化解。国家政务服务平台等新型数智平台深度嵌入国家治理体系，形成了现实与虚拟双重时空场域的新型民主治理形式。“数字技术成为扩展公共领域空间范围的重要媒介，使公共领域的形态更加灵活多变，呈现出开放的、无边界的、持续的表征”。进而，多种数智技术赋能治理现代化，实现从经验决策到数据决策的精准化转型。大数据分析可以帮助政府更精准地了解民众需求，减少因信息搜集不全面导致的反复性政策试验成本。同时，数智技术在处理大量分散化、多元化、碎片化信息的同时，能够在后台完整保留存储信息来源与处理流程，保证民主治理的公开透明性。

Digital-intelligent technology enhances the "breadth and efficacy" of democratic governance. This manifests as the orderly conduct of "whole-chain" democratic governance, the steady advancement of "all-dimensional" democratic governance, and the concrete implementation of "full-coverage" democratic governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out that "China's whole-process people's democracy has not only a complete system of institutions and procedures, but also a complete set of participatory practices." The integrative nature of digital technology and the generative nature of intelligent technology empower the organic linkage of each link in the democratic chain: realizing democratic elections with transparent and auditable data, democratic consultation that builds consensus and ensures effectiveness, democratic decision-making that fully absorbs public opinion, democratic management based on an integrated governance network, and democratic supervision with real-time intelligent feedback, thereby shaping a "whole-chain" democracy that is a composite construction of socialist democratic politics and digital-intelligent technology. Digital-intelligent technology enriches the consultative methods of "full-coverage" subjects in democratic governance, integrates the various resources of "full-coverage" objects in democratic governance, and, through human-machine integration, virtual-real isomorphism, and algorithm-led modes, perfects the mechanism for adopting, implementing, and providing feedback on the outcomes of consultation. Big data technology can assist users in conveniently participating in democratic consultation and democratic decision-making across political, economic, cultural, social, and ecological fields, unconstrained by time and space. At the same time, the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence technology, such as semantic extraction, text classification, and natural language generation, can provide users with information on democratic issues in various fields, and predict and assist governing subjects in making scientific decisions.

数智技术提高了民主治理的“广度效能”。这表现为“全链条”民主治理有序开展、“全方位”民主治理稳步推进、“全覆盖”民主治理落到实处。习近平总书记指出，“我国全过程人民民主不仅有完整的制度程序，而且有完整的参与实践”。数字化技术的整合性和智能化技术的生成性赋能民主链条各环节的有机衔接：实现数据透明可查的民主选举、凝聚共识并保证效力的民主协商、充分吸纳民意的民主决策、一体化治理网络基础上的民主管理、实时智能化反馈的民主监督，塑造了社会主义民主政治与数智技术复合建构的“全链条”民主。数智技术丰富了民主治理“全覆盖”主体的协商方式，整合了民主治理“全覆盖”对象的各类资源，以人机互融、虚实同构与算法主导的方式，完善了协商成果采纳、落实、反馈机制。大数据技术能够在政治、经济、文化、社会、生态等各个领域，帮助用户不受时空局限便捷参与民主协商和民主决策。同时，生成式人工智能技术的语义提取、文本分类、自然语言生成等能力，能够为用户提供各领域民主议题的信息，预测和辅助治理主体进行科学决策。

(III) Digital-Intelligent Technology Broadens New Channels for Democratic Participation

（三）数智技术拓宽民主参与新渠道

The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC emphasized the need to "expand the people's orderly political participation and ensure that the people lawfully carry out democratic elections, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision, thereby giving full play to the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of the masses." As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters the New Era, the people's need for a better life inherently includes their political demands in areas such as democracy, fairness, and the rule of law. This objectively requires that whole-process people's democracy, in its practical implementation, continuously responds to and guarantees the people's right to orderly participation in political life. Empowering whole-process people's democracy with digital-intelligent technology helps ensure that the voice of the people is broadly and fully expressed, that public opinion is centrally collected and highly valued, and that channels for democratic participation are broadened through new media and new platforms.

党的二十大报告强调，要“扩大人民有序政治参与，保证人民依法实行民主选举、民主协商、民主决策、民主管理、民主监督，发挥人民群众积极性、主动性、创造性”。中国特色社会主义进入新时代，人民群众对美好生活的需要内在包含人民在民主、公平、法治等领域的政治诉求，客观要求全过程人民民主在落地实践中持续回应和保障人民有序参与政治生活的权利。以数智技术赋能全过程人民民主，有助于民声得到广泛且充分地表达，民意能受到集中且高度的重视，民主参与的渠道通过新媒体、新平台的形式得到拓宽。

Digital-intelligent technology has greatly lowered the threshold for citizen participation in politics and broadened new channels for the expression of the people's voice. The core of democracy is the broad participation of the people in the management of state and social affairs. Social media, online voting, online political consultation, etc., enable citizens to participate in political discussion and decision-making processes anytime and anywhere, providing a technological platform for safeguarding the people's rights to information, expression, election, and supervision. For example, XR (Extended Reality) technology, including AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), and MR (Mixed Reality), can effectively construct entirely new digital spaces for political participation. It not only helps users engage in political activities in an embodied way through digital devices, but can also shorten the perceived distance between users and digital government. This kind of virtual political participation through situational interaction allows the public to feel that democratic participation is "down-to-earth." Digital-intelligent technology can, to a certain extent, break down identity barriers, allowing people of different occupations, levels, and regions to exchange opinions in the same space, providing technical support for promoting the people's orderly political participation. At the same time, digital-intelligent technology effectively optimizes the government's democratic governance processes and broadens new channels for adopting public opinion. Through digital platforms and intelligent systems established by digital-intelligent technology, the communication and interaction mechanism between the public and the government can be reshaped: in the public opinion collection stage, an information transmission chain is established to efficiently capture and gather public suggestions and opinions; in the public opinion analysis stage, effective information is screened and extracted through methods such as questionnaires, opinion polls, and policy ratings; in the public opinion feedback stage, online public opinion feedback channels are built to enhance interactivity and real-time responsiveness with the public.

数智技术极大地降低了公民参与政治的门槛，拓宽了民声表达新渠道。民主的核心是人民广泛参与国家和社会事务的管理。社交媒体、在线投票、网络问政等使得公民能够随时随地参与政治讨论和决策过程，为保障广大人民群众知情权、表达权、选举权和监督权提供了技术平台。比如，XR（扩展现实）技术包括AR（增强现实）、VR（虚拟现实）、MR（混合现实），能够有效构建全新的政治参与数字空间。它不仅帮助用户具身化地通过数字设备参与政治活动，还可以拉近用户与数字政府的距离感，这种虚拟政治参与的情景互动能够让公众感受到民主参与是“接地气”的。数智技术能够在一定程度上打破身份壁垒，让不同职业、不同层级、不同地区的公众在同一场域进行意见交流，为推动人民有序政治参与提供了技术支持。同时，数智技术有效地优化了政府民主治理的流程，拓宽了民意采纳新渠道。通过数智技术建立的数字化平台和智能化系统，民众与政府沟通交流机制得以重塑：在民意搜集环节建立信息传递链对民众意见建议进行高效抓取和收集，在民意分析环节以问卷调查、民意测验、政策评分的方式筛选挖掘有效信息，在民意反馈环节通过搭建线上民意反馈渠道增强与民众交互性、实时性。

II. Potential Risks and Challenges of Digital-Intelligent Technology Application to Democratic Politics

二、数智技术应用对民主政治的潜在风险挑战

Dialectical materialism holds that "the affirmative recognition of existing things simultaneously contains the negative recognition of existing things." The application of digital-intelligent technology in the development of whole-process people's democracy also carries its own risks. If there is excessive reliance on digital-intelligent technology, it can easily weaken human subjectivity and foster the cognitive bias of techno-solutionism. Constrained by the objective mismatch between technological logic and democratic institutions, as well as the subjective cognitive bias of democratic subjects who片面推崇技术效能 (one-sidedly extol technological efficiency), this gives rise to risk challenges such as "digital-intelligent alienation" dissolving the essence of democracy, "digital-intelligent divides" blocking democratic interaction, and "digital-intelligent monopolies" manipulating democratic practice.

唯物辩证法认为，“对现存事物的肯定的理解中同时包含对现存事物的否定的理解”。全过程人民民主发展中数智技术的应用也有其风险性。如果过度依赖数智技术则易弱化人的主体性，催生唯技术论的认知偏差。受制于技术逻辑与民主制度的客观错配、民主主体片面推崇技术效能的主观认知偏差，造成“数智异化”消解民主本质、“数智鸿沟”阻断民主交往、“数智垄断”操控民主实践等风险挑战。

(I) "Digital-Intelligent Alienation": Dissolving User Subjectivity Leading to the Loss of the Essence of Democracy

（一）“数智异化”：消解用户主体性导致民主本质的丧失

Within the theoretical perspective of Marxism, "alienation" refers to the situation where the product produced by the worker does not belong to the worker but instead comes to dominate the worker: "the object produced by labor, labor's product, confronts it as something alien, as a power independent of the producer." The excessive application of digital-intelligent technology objectively possesses the potential to weaken democratic authenticity, reify democratic interactivity, and dilute democratic publicness. This phenomenon of "digital-intelligent alienation" dissolves user subjectivity, thereby leading to the loss of the essence of democracy. First, digital-intelligent technology may weaken democratic authenticity. Users exercise their democratic rights through virtual social platforms and digital platforms, but online participation can not only cause "distortion of the democratic scene," but also lead to "data distortion" during information transformation such as public opinion feedback. Consequently, the people's will and wishes, influenced or misguided by algorithms and data prediction, result in "distorted participation." Second, digital-intelligent technology may reify democratic interactivity. The new model of democratic participation on digital-intelligent platforms replaces "relations of human dependence" with "relations of material dependence" on data, information, and intelligent technology. This brings the risk of an "ethical deficit" in the operation of democracy. Because the materialized relations generated by digital-intelligent technology empowering democracy lack moral normativity, and while technology rapidly updates, "the ethical landscape and its innovation exhibit 'sluggishness' and 'delay'." Thus, under the aegis of technological rationality, democratic values become eroded. Finally, digital-intelligent technology may dilute democratic publicness. Political power can use digital-intelligent technology to monitor public speech and manipulate public opinion. If certain power subjects collude with data companies, using user data to analyze public political leanings and employing algorithmic push notifications of specific political information to influence electoral intentions or policy attitudes, they can covertly manipulate the people's democratic expression and choices. In such a case, democracy ceases to be an expression of the public will, and its publicness is completely destroyed by the private use of power.

在马克思主义理论视域中，“异化”是指劳动者生产的产品不属于自身、却反过来统治自身的情况，“劳动所生产的对象，即劳动的产品，作为一种异己的存在物，作为不依赖于生产者的力量，同劳动相对立。”数智技术的过度应用在客观上存在着弱化民主真实性、物化民主交互性、淡化民主公共性等可能。这种“数智异化”现象消解了用户主体性从而导致民主本质的丧失。首先，数智技术可能弱化民主的真实性。用户通过虚拟社交平台和数字平台行使民主权利，但线上参与不仅会造成“民主场景失真”，而且在民意反馈等信息转化时还会出现“数据失真”，从而民意民愿受到算法和数据的预测或不良引导使得民主“参与失真”。其次，数智技术可能物化民主交互性。数智平台的民主参与新模式，使得数据、信息以及智能技术的“物的依赖关系”代替了“人的依赖关系”。这会带来民主运行中的“伦理缺位”风险。因为数智技术赋能民主产生的物化关系不具有道德规范性，在技术迅速更新的同时，“伦理图景及其革新却表现出‘钝感性’与‘延迟性’”，因而在技术理性的加持下民主价值会受到侵蚀。最后，数智技术可能淡化民主公共性。政治权力可借助数智技术监控公众言论、操纵舆论，如果一些权力主体通过与数据公司勾结，利用用户数据分析公众政治倾向，并借助算法推送特定政治信息影响选举意愿或政策态度，从而暗中左右公众的民主表达和选择。如此，民主便不再是公众意志的体现，其公共性将被权力私用的行为彻底破坏。

At the same time, issues of digital security and privacy exposure infringe upon the legitimate rights of democratic participation subjects. Digital technology has the characteristic of collecting and processing large amounts of data, enabling it to establish public information databases. However, this inevitably brings risks of information security breaches, privacy leaks, and even cyber violence. "Unfair phenomena arising in the process of algorithmic automated decision-making can deepen stereotypes and public opinion violations against specific groups," leading algorithms to bias the integration of information and generate content they wish to see based on the gender, age, occupation, etc., of democratic participation subjects, while some objective information is obscured. Furthermore, citizens' private information may be illegally collected through data control, misappropriated, or even used to maliciously insult and abuse citizens, spread rumors, expose private details, and damage reputations. "The illegal collection, theft, sale, and use of user information is rampant, seriously infringing upon citizens' privacy rights," severely violating the right to expression of democratic participation subjects.

同时，数字安全和隐私暴露的问题侵害民主参与主体的合法权利。数字技术具有收集和处理大量数据的特点，使其能够建立公众信息数据库。然而，这不可避免地带来信息安全、隐私泄露甚至网络暴力的风险。“在算法自动化决策过程中产生的不公平现象，会加深对特定群体的刻板印象与舆论侵害”，导致算法偏见性地整合信息并根据民主参与主体的性别、年龄、职业等情况生成其希望看到的信息，而一部分客观信息则被遮蔽。进而公民隐私信息被数据管控违规收集、非法挪用，甚至利用信息对公民进行恶意侮辱和谩骂、散播谣言、揭露隐私、毁坏名誉。“针对用户信息的非法收集、窃取、贩卖和利用行为猖獗，严重侵犯了公民隐私权利”，严重侵害了民主参与主体的表达权。

(II) "Digital-Intelligent Divide": Blocking User Interactivity Creating a Phenomenon of Democratic Disenfranchisement

（二）“数智鸿沟”：阻断用户交互性造成民主遗民现象

In the process of dissemination and development, digital-intelligent technology, owing to the objective imbalance in the distribution of digital resources between China's urban and rural areas, between its eastern and western regions, and between the elderly and the young, gives rise to a "digital-intelligent divide" (数智鸿沟) that blocks user interaction, which in turn produces the phenomenon of "democratic vestiges" (民主遗民). According to the criteria of digital application and intelligent application of technology, the "digital-intelligent divide" is divided into two aspects: the "digital divide" (数字鸿沟) and the "intelligent divide" (智能鸿沟). The "digital divide" reflects problems such as the uneven distribution of digital resources and the weak digital awareness of certain segments of the population, while the "intelligent divide" further reflects deeper structural problems concerning human-machine relations and knowledge monopoly.

数智技术在传播与发展过程中，由于在中国城镇与乡村之间、东部与西部之间、老年群体与青年群体之间客观存在着数字资源分配的不平衡，就产生了阻断用户交互的“数智鸿沟”问题，进而造成“民主遗民”现象。按照技术的数字化应用与智能化应用的标准，“数智鸿沟”分为“数字鸿沟”与“智能鸿沟”两个方面。“数字鸿沟”体现的是数字资源分配不均与部分民众群体数字意识淡薄等问题，而“智能鸿沟”则进一步体现为人机关系和知识垄断等深层次结构问题。

The weakening of the broad participation of whole-process people's democracy by the "digital divide" creates digital poverty and hinders the process of empowerment. The popularization of digital technology is mainly divided into two aspects: the material link of "port access" (端口接入) and the conceptual link of "cultivating digital awareness" (数字观念培养). The uneven distribution of digital resources between urban and rural areas and across regions reflects the problems of the digital divide in these two aspects. As of June 2025, the number of rural netizens in China reached 322 million, accounting for 28.7% of all netizens; the number of urban netizens reached 801 million, accounting for 71.3% of all netizens. The *Digital China Development Report (2022)* shows that Zhejiang, Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Shandong, Tianjin, Chongqing, and Hubei ranked among the top 10 nationally in terms of comprehensive digital development level. This indicates that the degree of digitalization in urban areas is far higher than in rural areas, and the degree of digitalization in the eastern region is higher than in the central and western regions. In other words, the application of digital-intelligent technology raises the threshold for citizens to participate in democracy, carrying the risk of excluding disadvantaged groups from digital channels of democratic participation. This conflicts with the value goal of "full coverage" (全覆盖) of whole-process people's democracy.

“数字鸿沟”对全过程人民民主广泛参与性的削弱，造成数字贫困并阻碍赋能进程。数字技术的普及主要分为“端口接入”的物质性环节和“数字观念培养”的观念性环节两个方面。数字资源在城乡分布和地区分布的不均反映了以上两个方面数字鸿沟问题。截至2025年6月，中国农村网民规模达3.22亿人，占网民整体的28.7%；城镇网民规模达8.01亿人，占网民整体的71.3%。《数字中国发展报告（2022年）》显示，浙江、北京、广东、江苏、上海、福建、山东、天津、重庆、湖北等地区数字化综合发展水平位居全国前10名。这表明城镇数字化程度远远高于乡村数字化程度，东部地区数字化程度要高于中西部地区数字化程度。换言之，数智技术的应用抬高了公民参与民主的门槛，有将弱势群体排除在数字参与民主渠道之外的风险。这与全过程人民民主“全覆盖”的价值目标形成冲突。

More importantly, the combination of intelligent technology and digital technology, especially the advent of generative AI, leads to a structural "intelligent divide" (智能鸿沟) in democratic participation. In fact, the upgrade from the digital divide to the intelligent divide is a process of gradual intensification and progression from the access divide (digital divide 1.0) to the literacy divide (digital divide 2.0) and then to the intelligent divide (digital divide 3.0). However, this does not mean that the emergence of the intelligent divide replaces the former two; rather, all three coexist, mutually reinforcing and compounding each other. Therefore, the nested and superimposed "digital-intelligent divide" not only brings to democratic practice the problems of unequal distribution of digital-intelligent resources and insufficient awareness of digital-intelligent application among the populace, but also incorporates issues arising from the functional replacement of democratic subjects' behavior by intelligent technology, such as the dilution of democratic consciousness and the anomie of democratic behavior. First, the crisis of human autonomy produced by artificial intelligence may dilute democratic consciousness. "Generative AI's substitution for mental labor may produce a new form of alienation, causing people to lose critical ability, imagination, and creativity, and even to become appendages of technology." If, in key links such as democratic consultation and democratic decision-making, there is excessive reliance on artificial intelligence to carry out related work, it will gradually weaken the intrinsic motivation of democratic subjects to actively participate in democratic practice, which is detrimental to the collection and reflection of popular wisdom (民智), public opinion (民意), and popular will (民愿). Second, the human-machine interaction function of artificial intelligence causes anomie in democratic behavior. Current generative AIs like ChatGPT cannot yet distinguish the legality of user requests, and even fabricate false answers when faced with missing information in their databases. If the behavior of the populace is manipulated and influenced by generative AI, then erroneous and harmful information will be incorporated into the collection of public opinion, increasing the cost of distinguishing truth from falsehood. Furthermore, the combination of algorithmic black boxes and intelligent technology causes some network biases to be absorbed by democratic participants, thereby affecting important links such as democratic elections, democratic decision-making, and democratic oversight.

更为重要的是，智能技术与数字技术的结合，尤其是生成式AI的问世，导致结构性的民主参与“智能鸿沟”难题。实际上，数字鸿沟到智能鸿沟的升级，是接入鸿沟（数字鸿沟1.0）、素养鸿沟（数字鸿沟2.0）和智能鸿沟（数字鸿沟3.0）逐步加强递进的过程。但是，并不是说智能鸿沟的出现取代了前两者，而是三者共同存在，相互叠加与强化。因此，嵌套叠加的“数智鸿沟”不仅为民主实践带来了数智资源不平等分配和民众数智化应用意识不足的问题，而且夹杂了因智能技术对民主主体行为的功能性取代，出现了民主意识淡化和民主行为失范等问题。首先，人工智能产生的人的自主性危机可能使民主意识淡化。“生成式人工智能对脑力劳动的替代可能会产生新的异化，使人失去批判能力、想象力与创造力，甚至沦为技术的附庸。”倘若在民主协商、民主决策等关键环节过度依赖人工智能从事相关工作，会逐步削弱民主主体主动参与民主实践的内在动力，则不利于民智、民意、民愿的搜集和反映。其次，人工智能的人机交互功能造成民主行为失范。当前ChatGPT等生成式人工智能还不能分辨用户请求的合法性，甚至在面对数据库缺失相关信息的时候会编造虚假回答。如果民众行为受到生成式人工智能的操控和影响，那么错误有害的信息将会被纳入民意搜集之中，增加辨别信息真伪的成本。此外，算法黑箱与智能化技术的叠加，使得部分网络偏见被民主参与主体所吸收，从而影响到民主选举、民主决策和民主监督等重要环节。

(III) "Digital-Intelligent Monopoly" (数智垄断): "Decentralization" Brings the Risk of Democracy Being Controlled

（三）“数智垄断”：“去中心化”带来民主被控制的风险

Although the "decentralized" (去中心化) characteristic of digital-intelligent technology is conducive to breaking down rigid social hierarchies and organizational systems, at the same time, the internet platforms constructed by digital-intelligent technology, "due to their anonymity, decentralization, and tendency to form homogeneous groups, make group polarization more pronounced online than in real life." Coupled with the erosion of democratic subjectivity brought by "digital-intelligent alienation" (数智异化) and the difficulty in exercising democratic rights caused by resource inequality behind the "digital-intelligent divide," this may lead to democratic behavior being monopolized by interest groups through digital-intelligent technology.

数智技术所具有的“去中心化”特征虽然有利于打破固化的社会层次与组织体系，但同时数智技术所构筑的互联网平台“由于其匿名性、去中心化和易于形成同质群体的特点，使得群体极化现象在网络中比现实生活中更为显著”。加之“数智异化”带来的民主主体性的侵蚀，以及“数智鸿沟”背后的资源不平等产生民主权利难以行使的问题，可能导致民主行为被利益团体通过数智技术垄断。

First, the "digital-intelligent monopoly" of decentralization manifests as the dilemma of democratic stratification (圈层化) and the decline of public reason. In Western countries, the combination of digital-intelligent technology and the market is most complete, which leads to digital-intelligent technology gradually being defined by the market and generating a digital-intelligent power of "information seeking people" (信息找人). Platform enterprises can influence citizens' political stances, preferences, and inclinations by mastering public data. The possessors of information resources can "monitor" democratic elections in the digital democratic space based on democratic information, forming a micro-power structure based on information interaction. In this way, platform enterprises form personalized customization and intelligent recommendation service methods based on user preferences, grouping those with similar knowledge backgrounds and political attitudes within the "same stratum" (同一圈层), while the strata lack communication and interaction due to being blocked by "digital-intelligent alienation" and the "digital-intelligent divide." In summary, "digital-intelligent alienation" dissolves the authenticity of democracy, the "digital-intelligent divide" hinders the breadth of democracy, and "digital-intelligent monopoly" limits the utility of democracy. In particular, the structural characteristic of "decentralization" in digital-intelligent technology weakens the attribute of state will in democracy, which manifests as: "Compared with the seriousness of mainstream ideology, the internet is filled with various types of entertainment-oriented, vulgarized, and flippant non-mainstream ideological information released to cater to audiences."

首先，去中心化的“数智垄断”表现为民主的圈层化困境与公共理性的衰退。在西方国家，数智技术与市场的结合最为充分，这就导致数智技术逐渐受到市场规定而生成了“信息找人”的数智权力。平台企业能够通过掌握公众的数据来对公民的政治立场、偏好和倾向等施加影响。信息资源的占有者能够在数字民主空间中根据民主信息对民主选举进行“监视”，形成了一种基于信息交互的微观权力结构。如此，平台企业形成了基于用户偏好的个性化定制与智能推荐服务手段，将相似知识背景与政治态度的群体划在“同一圈层”内部，各圈层之间受到“数智异化”与“数智鸿沟”的阻断而缺乏交流互动。概言之，“数智异化”消解了民主的真实性，“数智鸿沟”阻碍了民主的广泛性，“数智垄断”限制了民主的管用性。尤其是数智技术“去中心化”的结构性特征弱化了民主的国家意志属性，这表现为“与主流意识形态的严肃性相比，互联网充斥着为了迎合受众而发布的各类娱乐性、低俗化、戏谑化的非主流意识形态信息”。

Second, the phenomenon of "digital-intelligent monopoly" in Western countries also manifests as capital controlling digital-intelligent technology, leading to the failure of government governance. The abuse of digital-intelligent technology has caused Western countries' "public trust in government institutions and in society to be dismantled, privacy rights to be violated, posing threats to social governance, economic development, and national defense security." Coupled with the sharp rise of liberalism and individualism, Western democratic institutions are in continuous decline. In the process of digital governance, different types of data gaps constrain the ability of Western governments to formulate inclusive policies. This is because when governments use data from specific channels as the primary data, problems of partial representation arise, such as lack of representation, discrimination, or data gaps. In the West, digital-intelligent technology conspires with capital, causing the technological factor as productive forces and the capital factor as relations of production to become nested and combined, structurally dominating and constraining the state, law, and other superstructures through the production, realization, and division of surplus value. On the one hand, digital-intelligent technology, through virtual technologies such as the internet and artificial intelligence, makes "reified" (物化) relations more abstract and hidden; digital commodities, digital currencies, digital platforms, and a series of virtual products make the transformation of surplus value more mysterious. On the other hand, Western countries' manipulation of ideological concepts to reproduce and consolidate capital relations becomes more efficient with the support of digital-intelligent technology. Platform capital "has mastered enough data on ordinary users to analyze the political stances, tendencies, and preferences of specific citizens," thereby manipulating important democratic practice links such as democratic elections. In contrast, as democratic participants, voters have no way to access large amounts of digital information; what they see are candidates who, while ostensibly serving the public, are in reality profiting for monopoly capital. China implements the fundamental political system of the People's Congress, which fundamentally differs from Western countries; the unreasonable phenomenon of capital manipulating democratic elections and dominating political life that exists in Western countries does not exist in China. However, the negative cases presented by Western countries of capital monopolizing technology and thereby manipulating democratic politics can provide a mirror for China's development of whole-process people's democracy and the improvement of the institutional system where the people are the masters of their own affairs.

其次，“数智垄断”现象在西方国家还表现为资本掌控数智技术致使政府治理失效。数智技术的滥用造成西方国家“民众对政府机构、对社会的信任被瓦解，隐私权被侵犯，给社会治理、经济发展、国防安全都带来了威胁”，加之自由主义与个人主义的急剧上升，西方民主制度不断衰落。在数字治理过程中，不同类型的数据缺口问题制约了西方国家政府制定包容性政策的能力。这是因为政府在使用特定渠道的数据作为主体数据时，出现了代表性缺失、歧视或数据缺失等以偏概全的问题。在西方，数智技术与资本合谋，使得作为生产力的技术要素与作为生产关系的资本要素嵌套结合，通过剩余价值的生产、实现与分割，结构性地支配和制约了国家、法律等上层建筑。一方面，数智技术通过互联网、人工智能等虚拟技术生成使得“物化”关系更为抽象和隐蔽，数字商品、数字货币、数字平台等一系列虚拟产品使得剩余价值的转化更为神秘。另一方面，西方国家通过意识形态观念操控等手段对资本关系的再生产和巩固，在数智技术的加持下更为高效。平台资本“掌握了足够多普通用户的数据，能够分析出具体公民的政治立场、倾向和偏好”，从而操控民主选举等重要民主实践环节。相反，作为民主参与者的选民却没有途径获取大量的数字信息，看到的是竞选者打着为民众服务的口号实质为垄断资本牟利的现象。中国实行人民代表大会的根本政治制度，在根本制度上不同于西方国家，不存在西方国家资本可以操控民主选举、主导政治生活的不合理现象，但西方国家呈现的资本垄断技术进而操控民主政治的反面案例，可为中国发展全过程人民民主、健全人民当家作主的制度体系提供镜鉴。

III. Practical Pathways for Digital-Intelligent Technology to Empower Whole-Process People's Democracy

三、数智技术赋能全过程人民民主的实践进路

Facing the potential risks and challenges that digital-intelligence technology may bring to the development of democratic politics, we should proactively respond, combine prevention and remediation, and uphold the socialist democratic attributes of whole-process people's democracy as "the broadest, the most genuine, and the most effective." The key lies in accurately positioning digital-intelligence technology as "auxiliary" and "service-oriented" in empowering whole-process people's democracy, maintaining a dynamic balance between the depth of technological embedding and the breadth of institutional absorption, and achieving a qualitative leap from tool-based empowerment toward value guidance, so as to realize the internal unity of democratic "orderliness" and "effectiveness" through "leading governance."

面对数智技术对民主政治发展可能带来的潜在风险挑战，我们应主动应对、防治并进，坚持全过程人民民主“最广泛、最真实、最管用”的社会主义民主属性。其中，关键在于找准数智技术在赋能全过程人民民主中的“辅助性”和“服务性”定位，在技术嵌入深度与制度吸纳广度间保持动态平衡，在工具赋能基础上向着价值引领进行质性跃迁，以“引领性治理”实现民主“有序性”与“有效性”的内在统一。

(I) Upholding the Leadership of the Party and the People-Centered Development Thought

（一）坚持党的领导和以人民为中心的发展思想

Upholding the leadership of the Party and the people-centered development thought is the fundamental value premise for preventing the risk of digital-intelligence alienation and unleashing the positive elements of digital-intelligence technology to empower whole-process people's democracy. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has unswervingly taken the path of political development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, upholding the organic unity of Party leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and law-based governance, and has continuously improved the institutional system of the people being the masters of the country to advance the construction of whole-process people's democracy. From a historical perspective, "whole-process people's democracy is the great creation of the Chinese Communist Party in uniting and leading the people in pursuing, developing, and realizing democracy." [n18] In the digital-intelligence era, taking the leadership of the Party and the people's standpoint as value principles for democratic political construction is an inevitable requirement of historical development. From the worker-peasant democratic power during the Agrarian Revolution period and the "Three-Thirds System" [n19] during the War of Resistance against Japan, to the establishment after the founding of New China of the people's congress system, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and then to the new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, moving from perfecting socialist democratic legal systems to advancing socialist democratic rule-of-law construction, all profoundly embody the continuous development and improvement of the socialist democratic system of the people being the masters of the country under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. From the perspective of the contemporary era, the deep embedding of digital-intelligence technology in democratic construction and democratic participation requires upholding Party leadership as the fundamental political guarantee and the people being the masters of the country as the value goal. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, socialist democratic politics has become more institutionalized, standardized, and proceduralized; socialist consultative democracy has been more broadly advanced; and grassroots democratic governance and democratic participation have become more vibrant. All this is inseparable from the orderly advancement of democratic political construction by the Chinese Communist Party under the guidance of the value goal of the people being the masters of the country. Therefore, the empowerment of whole-process people's democracy by digital-intelligence technology must always uphold the principle that "Party leadership is the fundamental guarantee for the people being the masters of the country and law-based governance, and the people being the masters of the country is the essential feature of socialist democratic politics." The development and application of digital-intelligence technology must take Party leadership as the fundamental premise, ensuring that the Party's major policies can be effectively implemented in the research and development of digital-intelligence technology. The application of digital-intelligence technology should be people-centered, balancing the efficiency principle of technology with the value principle of people's democracy, ensuring that technology serves the well-being of the people and that the people's subject status is not violated by technology.

坚持党的领导和以人民为中心的发展思想，是防范数智异化风险、发挥数智技术积极要素赋能全过程人民民主的根本价值前提。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚定不移走中国特色社会主义政治发展道路，坚持党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国有机统一，通过不断健全人民当家作主制度体系，推进全过程人民民主建设。从历史进程来看，“全过程人民民主是中国共产党团结带领人民追求民主、发展民主、实现民主的伟大创造”。数智时代民主政治建设把坚持党的领导和人民立场作为价值遵循是历史发展的必然要求。从土地革命时期的工农民主政权和抗日战争时期的“三三制”原则，到新中国成立后确立的人民代表大会制度、中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度、民族区域自治制度，再到改革开放和社会主义现代化建设新时期从健全社会主义民主法制走向推进社会主义民主法治建设，都深刻体现着中国共产党领导的人民当家作主的社会主义民主制度的不断发展完善。从时代境遇来看，数智技术对民主建设和民主参与的深度嵌入，需要坚持党的领导作为根本政治保证和人民当家作主作为价值目标。党的十八大以来，社会主义民主政治更加制度化、规范化、程序化，社会主义协商民主更为广泛推进，基层民主治理和民主参与更具活力，这些都离不开中国共产党在人民当家作主的价值目标指引下对民主政治建设的有序推进。因而，数智技术对全过程人民民主的赋能，要始终坚持“党的领导是人民当家作主和依法治国的根本保证，人民当家作主是社会主义民主政治的本质特征”。数智技术的开发运用以党的领导为根本前提，保证党的大政方针能够在数智技术研发中得到有效执行。数智技术的应用应当以人民为中心，通过人民民主的价值原则平衡技术的效率原则，确保技术服务于人民的福祉和人民的主体地位不受技术的侵犯。

By improving and perfecting institutional procedures to broaden the channels for the people's orderly political participation, the popular character of whole-process people's democracy and the efficiency of digital-intelligence empowerment can be organically combined, demonstrating the breadth, genuineness, and effectiveness of whole-process people's democracy. First, adhere to using the Party's theory, line, and policies to guide the development of digital-intelligence technology, promoting better alignment between democratic political construction and social development. Give full play to the leading and guiding role of Party leadership in democratic political development, and "insist on carrying out Party leadership throughout the entire process of the 'Artificial Intelligence+' action." [n20] Enhance the digital and intelligent thinking capabilities of leading cadres, enabling them to actively resist the infiltration of Western adverse political ideologies hidden behind technology, and promote the improvement of the institutional system for the people being the masters of the country. Second, implement the people-centered development thought in technological empowerment, establishing the value orientation of the supremacy of the people. Embed the popular character in every link of digital-intelligence empowerment, especially in democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, and democratic management. Continuously expand multiple channels for democratic consultation such as online surveys, big data collection, and intelligent testing, and explore various forms of democratic management such as online deliberation and decision-making. This requires not only demonstrating humanistic care in the design and application of technology research and development, coupling with the specific demands of the masses, but also expanding inclusiveness in digital-intelligence governance, enhancing the applicability of technology to different vulnerable groups.

通过健全完善制度程序拓宽人民有序政治参与渠道，全过程人民民主的人民性与数智赋能的高效性能够有机结合，彰显了全过程人民民主的广泛性、真实性与管用性。一是坚持以党的理论和路线方针政策引领数智技术发展，推动民主政治建设与社会发展更好相适应。发挥党的领导在民主政治发展中的主导性和引领性的能动作用，把“坚持把党的领导贯彻到‘人工智能+’行动全过程”。提升领导干部的数字与智能思维能力，使其主动抵制隐匿在技术背后的西方不良政治思潮的渗透，推动完善人民当家作主的制度体系。二是在技术赋能中落实以人民为中心的发展思想，确立人民至上的价值导向。将人民性内嵌在数智赋能的各个环节，尤其是民主协商、民主决策和民主管理方面，不断拓展网络调研、大数据搜集、智能测验等民主协商多种途径，探索线上议事与决策等多种民主管理形式，既要在技术研发设计和应用中彰显人文关怀，耦合人民群众具体诉求，又要在数智治理中扩大包容度，加强技术对不同弱势群体的适用性。

(II) Returning to the Essence of Democracy: Regulating the Subject-Object Relationship between Democratic Subjects and Digital-Intelligence Technology

（二）复归民主本质：规范民主主体与数智技术的主客关系

Digital-intelligence technology, as an element of productive forces, and democratic political construction are in a dynamic, mutually influencing relationship. If technological means are not constrained and defined by the people's democratic principles, democratic subjects risk being swept away by technological rationalism. Therefore, democratic political construction should establish a normative subject-object relationship between democratic subjects and digital-intelligence technology, thereby returning to the value position of "supremacy of the people" in socialist democratic politics. This requires action in two areas: protecting voter privacy and optimizing algorithms to serve the development of democratic politics.

数智技术作为生产力要素与民主政治建设之间是动态相互影响的关系，如果技术手段不受到人民民主理念制约和规定，民主主体便会面临被技术理性主义裹挟的风险。因此，民主政治建设应建立民主主体与数智技术之间规范的主客体关系，从而复归社会主义民主政治“人民至上”的价值立场，这需要从保护选民隐私和优化算法为民主政治发展服务两个方面来进行。

First, strengthen data privacy protection and security regulation, establishing an institutional safeguard system for digital-intelligence technology to serve the public. On the one hand, introduce new policies and regulations, using digital-intelligence technology to protect public privacy. Uphold the value position of the supremacy of the people, adopt digital technology means for privacy protection such as restricting the collection of personal data, authenticating identity verification, encryption technology, and biometric identification, and use intelligent data analysis, report generation, code development, and intelligent testing and debugging to comprehensively optimize traditional technologies, fully protecting public privacy from infringement in democratic elections and democratic decision-making processes. On the other hand, strengthen citizens' oversight mechanisms for privacy protection, paying attention to public feedback concerning acts that infringe on public privacy. Establish diversified participation channels, ensuring that the public can participate in discussions and decisions regarding privacy policies and regulations through online platforms and social media. At the same time, guarantee voters' right to be forgotten, that is, the right to completely delete from digital space voters' personal electoral intention information, complaint and reporting data, data from participating in politics under anonymous identities, and even personal privacy data such as social network footprints, website browsing history, travel information, and family member information, thereby freeing the public from "lingering worries" about privacy leaks when participating in political activities online.

其一，加强数据隐私保护和安全监管，建立数智技术服务于民众的制度保障体系。一方面，出台新政策新法规，运用数智技术保护民众隐私。坚持人民至上的价值立场，采取限制收集个人数据、对身份识别进行真实性认证、加密技术、生物识别等隐私保护的数字技术手段，并运用智能化的数据分析、报表生成、代码开发以及智能测试调试等手段综合优化传统技术，在民主选举和民主决策等环节充分保护民众隐私不受侵犯。另一方面，强化公民对隐私保护的监督机制，重视涉及侵犯民众隐私行为的民意反馈。建立多元化的参与渠道，确保民众可以通过在线平台和社交媒体参与涉及隐私政策法规的讨论和决策。同时，保障选民拥有数据的被遗忘权，即在数字空间中彻底删除选民个人的选举意向信息、举报信访数据、以匿名身份参政议政等数据，甚至是社交网络足迹、网站历史浏览记录、出行信息、家庭成员信息等个人隐私数据，从而让公众在网络上参与政治活动时无隐私泄露的“后顾之忧”。

Second, optimize algorithm technology and intelligent recommendation mechanisms to avoid digital-intelligence "technological feudalism." [n21] The key to institutional constraints and value guidance for algorithms lies in strengthening the regulation of technology companies, preventing them from manipulating algorithms to influence public will or even political decisions. The practice of whole-process people's democracy should overcome the illusions of Western democracy. By establishing algorithm review mechanisms and other means, introduce third-party institutions under government supervision to review and evaluate algorithms, ensuring they meet ethical and legal standards, and improving algorithm transparency, fairness, and non-bias. At the same time, democratic political construction should avoid falling into the trap of digital-intelligence "technological feudalism." The characteristic of whole-process people's democracy, the unity of formal democracy and substantive democracy, can effectively prevent the public from developing "group dependency" under the influence of digital-intelligence technology, achieving the mastery of the people over technological tools. At the level of institutional design, embed the "subject status of the people" into technology application standards, stipulating that algorithm models must pass a "democratic value impact assessment" to prevent technology holders from using the exclusionary power of digital-intelligence for the "expropriation and surveillance" of the democratic sphere. At the level of practical operation, promote the technology下沉 model; while promoting online government service platforms, also set up offline digital service stations to assist elderly and other marginalized groups in using online political participation platforms, preventing technology companies from weakening the political rights of the grassroots through algorithms and thus "returning to feudal structures." At the level of perfecting institutional constraints, use the rule of law to standardize algorithm applications in the public sphere, improve systems for the disclosure and publication of algorithmic decision-making information, build a solid institutional constraint defense line, and establish a "people's congress deputies—platform users—third-party institutions" collaborative oversight system, preventing technology owners from monopolizing and closing off the processes of democratic management and democratic decision-making through control of algorithm technology.

其二，优化算法技术和智能推荐机制，避免数智化的“技术封建主义”。对算法的制度制约与价值引领，重点在于加强对技术公司的监管，防止其通过操控算法影响民众意愿甚至政治决策。全过程人民民主实践应克服西方民主幻象，通过建立算法审查机制等手段，在政府监管下引入第三方机构对算法进行审查和评估，确保其符合伦理和法律标准，提高算法透明性、公正性和非偏见性。同时，还应该避免民主政治建设陷入数智化“技术封建主义”的窠臼。全过程人民民主的形式民主与实质民主相统一的特质，能够有效防止民众受数智技术影响而产生“群体依赖”，实现以人民性驾驭技术工具。在制度设计层面，将“人民主体地位”嵌入技术应用标准，规定算法模型需通过“民主价值影响评估”，防止技术占有者运用数智化的排他性权力对民主领域的“征用与监控”；在实践操作层面，推广技术下沉模式，在推广线上政务平台的同时设置线下数字服务站，辅助老年人等边缘性群体使用线上参政平台，防范技术公司通过算法弱化底层政治权利从而“重返封建结构”；在完善制度约束层面，以法治化规范公共领域算法应用，健全算法决策信息披露与公开制度，筑牢制度约束防线，构建“人大代表—平台用户—第三方机构”协同监督体系，避免技术拥有者通过把持算法技术封闭化民主管理和民主决策过程。

(III) Bridging the Technology Gap: Upholding Equal Rights for Digital-Intelligence Participation among Different Social Groups

（三）弥合技术鸿沟：维护不同社会群体数智参与平等权利

"In an era of rapid artificial intelligence development, transforming the 'digital divide' into a 'digital dividend' is the key to effectively stimulating popular political participation and strengthening the ideological and ethical responsibility of the people." Safeguarding the right of different social groups to participate equally in democratic practice through digital-intelligent means is the main purpose of bridging the digital-intelligent technology gap and thereby overcoming technological alienation. This requires us to explore optimization pathways from two aspects: bridging the digital divide and bridging the intelligent divide.

“在人工智能快速发展的时代，‘数字鸿沟’转化为‘数字红利’是有效激发民众政治参与和强化民众意识形态伦理责任的关键所在”。维护不同社会群体通过数智化手段平等参与民主实践的权利，是弥合数智技术鸿沟从而克服技术异化的主要目的，需要我们从弥合数字鸿沟和智能鸿沟两个方面来探索优化路径。

First, embed digital equity throughout every link of whole-process people's democracy, integrating digital resources across different groups to effectively bridge the digital divide. On the one hand, by providing universal digital skills and literacy training for disadvantaged groups, we can fill the gaps in digital application capabilities among different groups, guarantee their equal participation in digital democratic practice, strive to bridge the group separation caused by the digital divide, and effectively dissolve the participation barriers generated by digital technology. The key here is to transform democratic participants from passive users of digital technology into active participants in technological application. For example, community education and public training programs can help the elderly and low-income groups acquire digital skills; digital literacy education can be incorporated into the rural revitalization strategy; and "silver-age digital literacy" campaigns can be carried out.[22]22 "Silver-age digital literacy" (银龄数字扫盲) refers to literacy campaigns targeting the elderly population, drawing on the Chinese term for "silver-haired" (银龄) as a euphemism for older adults. On the other hand, by increasing investment in digital infrastructure and building a unified democratic digital resource platform, we can promote the popularization of digital technology and narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas, between different groups, and between different regions. Constructing a unified data resource platform for public opinion and popular will can break "data silos" and enable the efficient collection, storage, and sharing of public opinion, thereby making it more convenient to retrieve data and understand popular needs in democratic decision-making. Unified platform construction can also make the principle of the people being the masters of the country microscopically visible in cyberspace, thereby "ensuring that mainstream political information reaches user terminals and satisfies users' right to know." At the same time, democratic participation channels should be diversified, retaining traditional methods such as offline public hearings and paper questionnaires to complement digital platforms.

其一，将数字公平贯通全过程人民民主各个环节，整合不同群体间的数字资源以有效弥合数字鸿沟。一方面，通过面向弱势群体开展普惠性数字技能与素养培训，补齐不同群体数字化应用短板，保障其平等参与数字化民主实践，着力弥合数字鸿沟造成的群体分隔，有效消解数字技术衍生的参与壁垒。其中的关键在于，将民主参与主体从数字技术的被动使用者转变为技术应用的主动参与者。例如，可以通过社区教育和公共培训项目，帮助老年人和低收入群体掌握数字技能，将数字素养教育纳入乡村振兴战略，开展“银龄数字扫盲”行动。另一方面，通过加大对数字基础设施的投入，建设统一的民主数字资源平台，促进数字技术大众化，缩小城乡之间、不同群体之间、不同地区之间的数字鸿沟。建构统一的民意民愿数据资源平台，打破“数据孤岛”，实现民意的高效采集、存储和共享，从而在民主决策中更加便捷地调取数据、了解民众需求。统一平台建设还能将人民当家作主在网络空间中微观显现，进而“保证主流政治信息到达用户端口，满足用户的知情权”。同时，也要将民主参与渠道多元化，保留线下听证会、纸质问卷等传统方式，与数字平台形成互补。

Second, transform the "substitution of the subject" in democratic participation into the "remolding of the subject," using "deep human-machine integration" to cross the intelligent divide. Current generative artificial intelligence possesses the characteristics of correlational thinking and probabilistic thinking, but lacks more advanced forms of thinking such as cause and structure, essence and phenomenon, and abstraction and concreteness. In other words, because artificial intelligence lacks dialectical thinking, it cannot achieve complete cognitive isomorphism with human thought; the two are not fully equivalent in cognitive logic and internal operating mechanisms. Therefore, in democratic links that require diverse modes of thinking—such as democratic elections, democratic decision-making, and democratic oversight—artificial intelligence does not yet meet the conditions for replacing the human subject. At present, it exists mainly as an auxiliary role, achieving "remolding of the subject" through "organic embedding" rather than "substitution of the subject." Specifically, on the one hand, "by integrating value-sensitive design principles into the framework of machine functionalism, we can more effectively identify and address the social inequalities and cultural differences that may arise during technological development, thereby promoting a positive interaction between technology and humanity." By identifying both direct users and indirectly affected groups, we can take into account the public's expectations and value orientations regarding democratic participation. On the other hand, generative artificial intelligence can be used as a platform medium for democratic participation. In the democratic decision-making process, generative AI such as Sora, DeepSeek, and ChatGPT can be employed to explain policy information and engage with the public through virtual scenarios and immersive experiences, thereby facilitating interactive discussions that advance policy formulation.

其二，将民主参与的“主体替代”转变为“主体重塑”，以“人机深度嵌合”跨越智能鸿沟。当前生成式人工智能具有相关性思维和概率性思维特性，缺乏原因与结构、本质与现象、抽象与具体等更为进阶的思维，换言之，人工智能由于缺乏辩证思维方式，其与人类思维无法实现完整的认知同构，二者在认知逻辑与内在运行机理上难以完全对等。因而，在民主选举、民主决策以及民主监督等需要多元思维方式的民主环节上，人工智能还不具备代替人类主体的条件，目前多作为辅助性角色而存在，即通过“有机嵌入”实现“主体重塑”，而非“主体取代”。具体而言，一方面，“通过将价值敏感的设计原则融入机器功能主义的框架，我们可以更有效地识别和解决技术发展过程中可能出现的社会不平等和文化差异问题，从而促进技术与人文的良性互动”。通过识别直接用户以及间接受到影响的群体，从而考虑到民众对于民主参与的期望和价值取向。另一方面，将生成式人工智能作为民主参与的平台媒介。在民主决策过程中，可以运用Sora、DeepSeek、ChatGPT等生成式人工智能讲解政策信息，与民众通过虚拟场景与沉浸式体验进行互动讨论从而推动政策制定。

In summary, the empowerment of whole-process people's democracy by digital-intelligent technology presents both strategic opportunities and potential risks and challenges. On the one hand, digital-intelligent technology, as a driving force of the revolution in productive forces, requires democratic development to undergo a digital-intelligent transformation. On the other hand, it is necessary to avoid potential risks such as digital-intelligent alienation dissolving the essence of democracy, the digital-intelligent divide creating democratic outcasts, and digital-intelligent monopolies controlling the democratic process. Only by upholding the leadership of the Party, taking "the people as the supreme" as the value anchor for technological application, balancing instrumental rationality and value rationality through institutional innovation, and strengthening data privacy protection, improving algorithmic transparency, narrowing the digital-intelligent divide, and exploring new forms of embedding digital-intelligent technology into the construction of democratic politics, can we fully unleash the positive role of digital-intelligent technology in empowering the development of whole-process people's democracy and achieve a positive interaction between digital-intelligent empowerment and institutional advancement.

总之，数智技术赋能发展全过程人民民主既有战略机遇，也面临潜在的风险和挑战。一方面，数智技术作为生产力革命的驱动力，要求民主发展进行数智化转型；另一方面，必须规避数智异化对民主本质的消解、数智鸿沟造成民主遗民、数智垄断控制民主进程等潜在风险。只有坚持党的领导，将“人民至上”作为技术应用的价值锚点，通过制度创新平衡工具理性与价值理性，在加强数据隐私保护、提高算法透明性、缩小数智鸿沟、探索数智技术嵌入民主政治建设新形式的基础上，才能充分发挥数智技术在赋能全过程人民民主发展中的积极作用，实现数智赋能与制度跃升的良性互动。