Transformational Impact of the Developments In Information Technologies on Constitutional Functions

Among all technological breakthroughs that the history has seen, the digital revolution is the one that has led to the largest social and cultural alternation and maintained a constantly accelerating self-renewal. Political power as a component of sovereignty also fails to ignore this holistic shift in human life and paradigm. It is expected and already observed that the contribution made by the digital revolution to political communication and political participation is soon to have an impact on the persons and institutions practicing the constitutional functions as well. At the same time, citizens, as they observe the new technological opportunities that may affect collective decision-making processes, assume that they can become more active participants and often believe that they can dominate public decisions. This paper aims to examine the structural and functional transformation of the legislative and executive bodies along with the developments in information technologies. At the same time, it will be explained how information technologies support citizens’ participation in processes of enjoying and controlling the political power. Besides applied examples from comparative law, references will also be made to the reviewed literature in Turkish and in English throughout the study.