21’İNCİ YÜZYIL’DA DEMOKRASİ: POPÜLİZM VE YAPAY ZEKA İLİŞKİSİ

In the 21st century, populism is assumed to be one of the greatest threats faced byliberal democracy. The emergence of this phenomenon, particularly in Westerndemocracies, is often explained by the significant increase in economic inequality, thecultural backlash triggered by liberal values or migration waves, globalisation, or theunresponsiveness of democracies to the people. However, such explanations containcontradictions. For instance, if the people possess the power to support thephenomenon of populism, why were they unable to control governments in the firstplace and prevent the factors that led to this phenomenon? This study offers a differenttheoretical framework for populism, arguing that liberal democracy itself can beconsidered a form of populism. Furthermore, according to this study, the increasingvisibility of populism today represents a struggle between two aristocracies within asociety. Grounded in a critical realist framework, this research examines artificialintelligence and the contemporary phenomenon of populism by analysing thelegislation, discourses, and statements regarding AI within the European Union. Thestudy employs policy analysis, functional analysis, and comparative historical analysisas its primary methods. For data, a wide range of sources has been utilised, includingvarious news sources, secondary research-based inferences, and surveys conducted byofficial and private institutions. The findings suggest that the phenomenon of populismis driven by divisions within the EU, which stem from the Second Cold War betweenthe United States and China at the global level, while at the national level, it originatesfrom the divisions AI has caused among elites. This fragmentation negatively impactsthe joint policymaking process within the EU. Additionally, based on the findingsdiscussed in this study, several recommendations have been presented to EU citizens.In this context, citizens have been urged to recognise the struggle between the peopleand the elites, and to be cautious about the increasing power of major technologycompanies. Finally, this study discusses how the political instability resulting fromAI's disruption of power balances among elites—at the national, Union-wide, or globallevel—could ultimately lead to the disintegration of the European Union.Keywords: Democracy, Artificial Intelligence, Big Tech, Populism,European Union, Intra-Elite Conflict.