Digital governance and public ethics: challenges for the welfare state in the age of artificial intelligence

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Published: 2026-05-12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70102/ah8k9610
Keywords:
Digital governance, Public ethics, Artificial intelligence, Welfare state, Algorithmic automation.

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Kathia Díaz Bedoya
Universidad Técnica “Luis Vargas Torres” de Esmeraldas-Ecuador
Mónica Maribel Castillo Toledo
Universidad Técnica “Luis Vargas Torres” de Esmeraldas-Ecuador https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4596-7509
Amalia Paula Angulo-Caicedo
Universidad Técnica “Luis Vargas Torres” de Esmeraldas-Ecuador https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4219-2253
Byron Fernando Chere-Quiñónez
Universidad Técnica Luis Vargas Torres de Esmeraldas-Ecuador https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1886-6147

Abstract

In this article, we investigate digital governance and the public ethics of artificial intelligence in the public sector to explore the challenges to the welfare state in the face of the algorithmic automation of administrative decisions. A qualitative study was conducted for this review, employing a critical and conceptual-normative analysis of indexed scientific literature and international regulatory frameworks published between 2022 and 2026, with a particular focus on European, multilateral, and Latin American experiences. The results demonstrated that the introduction of algorithmic systems in public management has generated a structural tension between administrative efficiency and fundamental rights, expressed in risks such as algorithmic opacity, computerized discrimination, and administrative depersonalization. Significant gaps were also found within the Latin American welfare state, linked to technological dependence, institutional deficits, technical weakness, a lack of technical capacity, and the emerging algorithmic privatization of public functions. Based on a critical literature review and comparative study, an ethical-institutional model of digital governance for the welfare state was developed in the form of a specific normative, institutional, technological, and citizen-based model of digital governance for the welfare state, articulated by a cross-cutting axis of public ethics and the guarantee of rights. This model showed that the ethical governance of artificial intelligence required ethics to be systemic and integrated in order to synchronize technological innovation with a response that includes the public and democratic values ​​of accountability and legitimacy. The research found that public ethics did not present a barrier to state modernization, but rather was essential for the responsible, fair, and coherent deployment of AI in international contexts, such as in countries of the Global South.

Article Details

Issue

Vol. 6 No. S1 (2026): Volume 6, Issue S1, 2026

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Articles

How to Cite

Digital governance and public ethics: challenges for the welfare state in the age of artificial intelligence (K. D. Bedoya, M. M. Castillo Toledo, A. P. Angulo-Caicedo, & B. F. Chere-Quiñónez, Trans.). (2026). International Journal of Aquatic Research and Environmental Studies, 6(S1), 1018-1031. https://doi.org/10.70102/ah8k9610

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