Book Review — Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship

Abstract

This review situates Rewiring Democracy within debates on artificial intelligence, democratic governance, and institutional design. In contrast to work that emphasizes technological determinism or narrowly defined risk mitigation, the review engages Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders’ argument that AI is becoming embedded in democratic institutions and everyday civic practices, shaping how governments process information, allocate authority, deliver public services, and mediate civic participation. The book is positioned alongside scholarship on surveillance capitalism, infrastructural power, and sociotechnical governance, while highlighting its distinctive contribution: a pragmatic framework for examining how AI may reconfigure legislatures, administrative agencies, courts, and civic life under conditions of democratic constraint. The review argues that the book is strongest when it treats AI as a governance challenge rather than merely a technical tool, but less complete when it moves from plausible use cases to durable institutional reform. It also assesses the book’s methodological orientation, noting both its strengths in conceptual synthesis and its limits in institutional specification, political economy, and democratic theory.