Algorithmic Governance: Experimental Evidence on Citizens' and Public Administrators' Legitimacy Perceptions of Automated Decision-Making

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Hillo, Jaakko; Vento, Isak; Erkkila, Tero
• 署名单位: University of Helsinki; Abo Akademi University
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3298
• DOI: 10.1111/padm.70028
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: congruence; POLICY

摘要

This article investigates legitimacy perceptions of automated decision-making (ADM) among public administrators and citizens. Views of public administrators, who exercise discretion over policy implementation, reflect readiness to integrate AI into decision-making. Governing by AI ought also to be responsive to the view of citizens, whose support democratic governing ultimately rests on. As AI use in governing grows, understanding the elite-mass opinion congruence is crucial, and incongruence suggest misalignment between citizen preferences and policy implementation. Using randomized survey experiments conducted among Finnish toplevel public administrators (N = 842) and a representative sample of citizens (N = 3245), we compare the legitimacy effects of algorithmic transparency and human discretion over decision-making in the context of child protection services. Transparency and human discretion enhance perceived legitimacy, with larger treatment effects among administrators. The study concludes that ADM legitimacy theories extend to a Nordic welfare context.