Citizens' Perceptions of AI-based Decision-Making in Public Administration

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving quietly into public administration, promising faster and more efficient decisions. But government work relies on something AI struggles to replicate: discretion. This is the human judgment that allows civil servants to consider context and the individual circumstances of each citizen. Discretion keeps the law from being simply black and white. But when that judgment becomes automated, how does it change the way citizens experience government decisions? This book brings citizens' voices into a debate that has largely left them out. Drawing on a series of controlled experiments and survey studies with German citizens, it examines how citizen involvement, the depth and interactivity of explanations, and the level of human oversight shape whether people perceive AI-based government decisions as fair and whether they are willing to accept them at all. The findings are not always what we might expect. More detailed explanations do increase perceived fairness, but don't necessarily make people more willing to accept AI in public administration. Interactive explanations add little value when a decision carries serious consequences for someone's life, and citizens consistently want a human involved in exactly those moments, while accepting automation for decisions that matter less. This book offers a timely, evidence-based examination of what citizens expect from AI in government and what it takes to make automated decision-making worthy of their trust.