The contemporary paradigm of the Smart City represents far more than a technological modernisation of urban infrastructure; it constitutes a profound civilisational transformation in which governance, citizenship, sustainability and digital intelligence converge into a unified socio-technical ecosystem. Melody Sperandio’s analysis demonstrates that Smart Cities emerge as strategic responses to accelerated urbanisation, ecological crisis and institutional distrust, proposing the integration of information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain systems and data-driven governance as mechanisms capable of reconfiguring the relationship between citizens and public institutions. Particularly significant is the adoption of the Smart City Wheel developed by Boyd Cohen and Rob Adams, which conceptualises intelligent urbanism through six interconnected dimensions: smart governance, smart mobility, smart economy, smart environment, smart people and smart living. Within this framework, the city ceases to be merely a territorial entity and becomes an adaptive digital organism oriented towards efficiency, transparency and participatory democracy. The thesis compellingly argues that the true innovation of Smart Cities does not reside exclusively in technological infrastructure but rather in the emergence of e-governance as a new democratic architecture capable of strengthening citizen participation through digital platforms, open data systems and algorithmically mediated public services. The Estonian model of i-Voting exemplifies this transformation by demonstrating how digital voting infrastructures may increase electoral accessibility, reduce bureaucratic friction and reinforce civic trust through cybersecurity and blockchain verification. Equally illuminating is the Smart Dubai initiative, where artificial intelligence, IoT ecosystems and integrated digital services are mobilised to construct a hyperconnected urban environment centred on public efficiency and citizen well-being. Nevertheless, the research also exposes the ethical ambiguities underlying intelligent urbanism, particularly concerning surveillance, data monopolisation, digital illiteracy and socio-technological inequality. Consequently, the Smart City emerges not as a purely technological utopia but as a contested political space where innovation, democracy and algorithmic power remain in constant negotiation. Ultimately, the thesis affirms that the future legitimacy of Smart Cities will depend upon their capacity to subordinate technological acceleration to the principles of human inclusion, digital justice and collective democratic participation.