Digitalisation of the Welfare State: Lessons for the Emerging Economies

Abstract

Of late, we find the post-Second World War welfare state being replaced by digital welfare states in advanced countries. It is supposed to be apolitical, cost-effective and more efficient. This revolution has taken place quietly and stealthily. As such, it is not possible to challenge its adverse effects legally by those excluded from the welfare benefits. Moreover, it is likely to create further barriers between some individuals and their social rights. Instead of ‘rule of law’ we now find ‘rule of web design’. It virtually amounts to a shift towards ‘digital governance’ where the major decisions are taken by the technocrats, corporate sector and the multinationals, disempowering the citizens and the states per se. Digitalisation of the welfare state, in fact, has helped in promoting the neoliberal agenda very cleverly by shifting some of the responsibilities to digital citizens, presuming them to be rational, capable and apolitical, which is not always true. Instead of providing shelter from market failures and other vicissitudes of life, the welfare states today seek to make their citizens more competitive, responsible and proactive. Digitalisation is seen as a step in the right direction in the name of economic gains, ignoring the dangerous centralisation tendencies in the process. The methodology adopted is analytical, comparative and empirical.