Abstract

The use and management of Big Data in the political sphere has posed unprecedented challenges concerning democratic governance, equity, and the rule of law. As Big Data establishes itself as a resource of growing value, it is imperative to address one of the most critical challenges: data sustainability. Data sustainability involves social and ethical considerations relating to the correct use of personal data. Lack of informed consent and transparency in collecting and using personal data raises serious concerns regarding privacy and individual rights. It is necessary to define regulations and public policies that guarantee citizens' digital rights based on ethical and democratic standards associated with data management. This article aims to review the literature in the context of data sustainability to identify how Big Data is used, particularly emphasizing its application in the policy domain and the challenges it poses for democratic governance, equity, and law. We have used systematic mapping methodology to collect relevant papers, finding 28 papers associated with democratic governance and Big Data in the context of data sustainability. From the review of these papers, there appears to be a lack of proposals focusing on applying or implementing democratic governance and Big Data. Furthermore, there seem to be no measures to assess the application of Big Data in democratic governance. From these, the need to move towards the definition of formal models that integrate Big Data practices in democratic governance is identified.