The Democratic Shift of Urban Community Governance Empowered by Digitalization: The Dual Logic of TechnologyDriven and Institutional Adjustment

Abstract

The deep application of digital technology is reshaping the underlying logic of urban community governance, driving its transformation from the traditional administrative-led model to technology-enabled democratic governance. This paper integrates theoretical achievements such as the mechanism of digital technology empowering community collaborative governance, the elements and principles of intelligent governance, and combines practical cases in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places to construct a three-dimensional analysis
framework of technology - system - subject, revealing the interactive logic of technology-driven and system adaptation in the process of
digital empowerment. The study found that while technology empowerment improves governance efficiency, it also faces deep-seated contradictions such as algorithmic black boxes, participation gaps, and lagging laws. In the future, a balance between instrumental rationality and
value rationality needs to be achieved through ethical technology design, hybrid negotiation mechanisms, the cultivation of multiple subjects
and the improvement of legal frameworks, and a governance paradigm of warm digital democracy that combines technological efficiency
and humanistic care needs to be constructed.