Call for Contributions: The Coming Age of Tech Trillionaires and the Challenge to Democracy

Tech Policy Press seeks contributions for a special series by Friday, April 25th, at Noon Eastern Time. Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis.

In an era in which extreme wealth, political authority, and technological dominance grant unprecedented influence to a select few, the extraordinary power of a handful of tech figures poses profound challenges to democratic governance. Through their roles in the development and control of artificial intelligence, social media, telecommunications infrastructure, surveillance systems, the space industry, and renewable energy, these individuals wield immense power through and beyond their companies. They are reshaping political discourse, regulatory landscapes, and societal norms on a global scale.

Tech Policy Press invites contributors to examine the political influence of the tech elite—including the unique phenomenon of centibillionaires and, soon, trillionaires. Contributors are encouraged to address the democratic risks posed by such individuals with inexhaustible resources and the capacity to shape policy, law, and public opinion who seem increasingly beyond the reach of accountability.

How do democracies—especially those in decline or otherwise precarious positions—safeguard public interests when confronted with figures who can leverage vast wealth, technology, and legal and political power to bypass, reshape, or capture traditional institutional constraints? What frameworks, tools, or strategies are necessary to ensure the ambitions and actions of such individuals align with countries’ democratic values and the will of elected governments?

Themes and Topics of Interest

We seek contributions that explore the following topics:

Defining the Problem

• What makes the concentration of wealth, influence, and multi-sector reach among tech billionaires a unique challenge for democracies?
• How does the current constellation of multinational technology corporations and the regulatory frameworks governing them illustrate broader issues about unchecked private power over people and politics in the 21st century?
• What lessons can we take from previous concerns around the concentration of power and wealth in earlier generations and the regulatory and democratic responses to such elite dominance?

Political Influence and Regulation

• How do tech billionaires engage in politics through lobbying, campaign financing, legal threats, corporate actions, and/or strategic public statements? How does this impact regulatory efforts in AI, social media, telecommunications, surveillance, and the space industry?
• What lessons can be learned from their interactions with governments, regulatory bodies, and the public?

Democratic Safeguards

• What existing tools—legal, regulatory, political, or societal—can be employed to counterbalance or contain the influence of individuals with nearly limitless resources?
• Are current safeguards sufficient, or do new mechanisms need to be developed to maintain democratic oversight and accountability?
• If democracies fail to contain the influence of tech billionaires, what are the implications for the future of civil rights, labor rights, access to basic needs, etc.?

Technology and Public Accountability

• Given the immense power exercised by tech billionaires and their companies, which deeply impacts political and economic rights and democratic institutions, do we need newer frameworks to define and govern the discharging of public functions and ‘default’ technological services by private actors? How adequately do constitutional rights, administrative law, and sectoral regulations hold this exercise of power accountable?
• How can societies ensure that technologies developed under the leadership of tech billionaires serve the public good rather than private or ideological interests? Can both those divergent interests be aligned?
• What role should public accountability play in shaping the direction of AI, space exploration, autonomous systems, and other transformative technologies?

Legal and Ethical Challenges

• How do tech billionaires and the companies they control use courts, media campaigns, lobbying efforts, and control of communication platforms to silence critics, obstruct regulatory oversight, and exert undue influence on democratic governance, thereby eroding public trust and undermining democratic processes? What are the long-term consequences of these actions for a free and open society?
• In what ways do tech billionaires and the companies they control obstruct regulatory oversight and exert undue influence on democratic governance, thereby eroding public trust and undermining democratic processes? What are the long-term consequences of these actions for a free and open society?
• What ethical frameworks should guide society in addressing the power dynamics inherent in extreme wealth and technological dominance?
• How are corporate governance mechanisms designed to help tech billionaires circumvent shareholder democracy and collective and consultative decision-making, resulting in the concentration of power in singular hands? Are there legal and regulatory environments that aid in creating and maintaining such corporate governance mechanisms?

Global Implications

• Given their global reach, how should international bodies and governments regulate the ventures of tech billionaires that transcend borders?
• What collaborative strategies might ensure global equity, security, and fairness in the face of private technological hegemony?
• If left unchecked, what trends in international economics and geopolitics might the combined dominance of billionaire interests and appeal of right-wing populists presage for the second half of the 21st century?
• How does the US government aid US Big Tech companies in negotiating better deals and regulatory exceptions while operating in other countries? How have foreign policy efforts supported Big Tech companies' influence and lobbying operations in informing regulations on cross-border data transfer, data protection, data localization, intermediary liability, taxation, etc., in countries where they operate?
• What lessons can those from Global Majority countries offer their counterparts in the Global North, given their own relationships with local corporate and political elites whose separate efforts to shift democratic institutions in their favor have existed for decades? How, if at all, is the problem of tech billionaires or trillionaires different from previous risks to democracy that stem from inequality?

Who Should Submit?

We welcome essays, research, reporting, data projects, and other contributions from our volunteer community of researchers, policymakers, journalists, technologists, and thinkers across disciplines. Submissions should aim to illuminate the intersection of individual and corporate wealth, technological power, and democratic governance, offering concrete insights or recommendations for addressing the challenges described above.

How to Submit?

We will not be able to accept every submission. We will accept pitches in the following format:

1. A 300-word synopsis of your thesis and what you plan to cover in your contribution. A synopsis can be sent with an outline or draft, but please place the synopsis at the top of your communication.
2. Please also include your biographical details and disclose any conflict of interest.
3. We prefer all drafts be sent as Google documents wherever possible. Please review our contribution guidelines. No footnotes. We use hyperlinks in place of citations.
4. All submissions should be sent to contributions@techpolicy.press.

While this is a core topic of interest for Tech Policy Press that we will revisit beyond this call, we will review submissions for this series on a rolling basis and prefer to receive them by Friday, April 25th, at Noon Eastern Time.