2022/11/19 by Pascal D. König · 39 citations
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Democracy #Epistemology #Government (linguistics) #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Law #Liberal democracy #Philosophy #Political economy #Political efficacy #Political science #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Public administration #Realm #Reductionism #Representative democracy #Skepticism #Social Media and Politics #Sociology #Technocracy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12570
published in European Journal of Political Research 62(4), 1280-1300 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2022/11/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract How much do citizens support artificial intelligence (AI) in government and politics at different levels of decision‐making authority and to what extent is this AI support associated with citizens’ conceptions of democracy? Using original survey data from Germany, the analysis shows that people are overall sceptical toward using AI in the political realm. The findings suggest that how much citizens endorse democracy as liberal democracy as opposed to several of its disfigurations matters for AI support, but only in high‐level politics. While a stronger commitment to liberal democracy is linked to lower support for AI, the findings contradict the idea that a technocratic notion of democracy lies behind greater acceptance of political AI uses. Acceptance is higher only among those holding reductionist conceptions of democracy which embody the idea that whatever works to accommodate people's views and preferences is fine. Populists, in turn, appear to be against AI in political decision making.