How Technology Changes the Distribution of Political Power
For centuries, the distribution of political power was anchored in the physical and institutional architectures of the industrial state. Authority flowed through recognized hierarchies—parliaments, bureaucratic agencies, party headquarters, and mass media cartels—where power was exercised through territory, law, and physical coercion. In the 21st-century network society, that Westphalian pyramid of power has been profoundly reconfigured.…