Ethics of Digital Innovation in Public Administration

Abstract

In public administration, digital technologies are considered a necessary direction of technical modernisation, improving the work of government agencies and the quality of their interaction with stakeholders. However, along with the benefits, several ethical concerns exist about using digital technologies. The purpose of the article is to analyse the state of the implementation of digital innovations in the field of public administration, as well as to systemise and analyse the main groups of ethical concerns arising in connection with the use of digital technologies in public administration. The article uses methods of bibliometric, comparative, and statistical analysis. The Google trends toolkit was used to study global trends in interest in e-governance, e-government, digital government, and related terms. Digital government and e-government were identified as the most common terms to define the use of digital technologies in public administration. The bibliographic analysis was carried out using VOSviewer v.1.6.18 based on Scopus articles for 2001-2022 and made it possible to identify four clusters of scientific research on e-government / digital government and ethics. The analysis used the criterion of at least five times the co-occurrence of all keywords in publications. Based on data from the World Bank, an analysis of the level of maturity of government technologies in European countries, particularly Ukraine, was carried out. The analysis showed that most countries had reached a very high level of e-government development in the European region. In recent years, Ukraine has significantly increased the indicators of the level of e-government, especially regarding the provision of digital administrative services. The article systematises the main ethical issues of using digital technologies in public administration. Three ethical problems were formed, namely 1) privacy, security, and data protection; 2) transparency and accountability; 3) inclusion, accessibility, and non-discrimination. The third group is defined as the most relevant at the current moment. The growing digital divide in the world necessitates the search for effective mechanisms to increase digital inclusion and ensure equal access to e-government for all stakeholders. The results of the research can be useful for scientists, state, and local self-government bodies in managing their technological and digital modernisation.