Digital Transformation in the Public Sector - Reflections on a Public Ethos

This paper investigates policy documents on digital transformation in the public sector and whether technological optimism also risks obscuring constitutional, democratic, and ethical principles. Two analytical tasks were undertaken: first, we mapped policy documents originating from a multi-level setting; and second, we explored the extent to which constitutional, democratic, and ethical principles are articulated. To explore the extent to which these principles are articulated the concept of a public ethos was utilized. A public ethos contains principles associated with a liberal representative democracy and a Weberian bureaucracy. The analysis underscores the need for research on maintaining a public ethos in politics associated with digital transformation. The policy documents that were analyzed lack ideas concerning democratic legitimacy, legal certainty, ethics in the public encounter, and systems for public scrutiny. The main conclusion is that the space in the documents is dominated by technological optimism, while constitutional, democratic, and ethical principles are given lower priority. The need for further research includes questions concerning (1) conditions for civic participation/party politics, (2) management issues concerning skill/learning development among public employees and on control mechanisms, (3) issues at the frontline of public administration on how the digital transformation affects the treatment of vulnerable/marginalized populations.