Abstract

The digital transformation is introducing important social changes that affect also political relations and the legitimacy of current political institutions. Debates about the political consequences of the digital transformation depend on current debates on de iure legitimacy, in which three main views are usually represented: consent-based theories, consequentialist theories and democratic-legitimacy theories. This essay considers a fourth possible theory of legitimacy, Elisabeth Anscombe’s functionalist view of authority. After framing the political problems caused by the digital transformation through Damiano Palano’s ideal-type of «bubble democracy», the paper presents the functional theory of authority and discusses its relevance for an assessment of those problems