Building and Eroding the Citizen–State Relationship in the Era of Algorithmic Decision-Making: Towards a New Conceptual Model of Institutional Trust

In liberal welfare states, algorithmic decision-making systems are being increasingly deployed, impacting the citizen–state relationship in a multitude of positive and negative ways. This theoretical paper aims to develop a novel conceptual model—the institutional trust model—to analyse how the implementation of automated systems erodes or strengthens institutional trust between policymakers and citizens. In this approach, institutional trust does not simply mean public trust in institutions (though it is an important component of democratic societies); instead, it refers to the responsive interactions between governmental institutions and citizens. Currently, very little is known about policymakers’ trust or distrust in automated systems and how their trust or distrust in citizens is reflected in their interest in implementing these systems in public administration. By analysing a sample of recent studies on automated decision-making, we explored the potential of the institutional trust model to identify how the four dimensions of trust can be used to explore the responsive relationship between citizens and the state. This article contributes to the formulation of research questions on automated decision-making in the future, underlining that the impact of automated systems on the socio-economic rights of marginalised citizens in public services and the policymakers’ motivations to deploy automated systems have been overlooked.