Navigating the AI Commission’s Roadmap for Sweden within the Iron Cage Metaphor: An Interpretation of Its Implications for Welfare Governance in Establishing a Coherent Means and End Relation within Implementation of ADM from a Weberian Perspective
(2025) SOLM02 20251Department of Sociology of Law
- Abstract
- The AI Commission prescribed a governance model, namely centralized leadership, to tackle existing digitalization challenges, as outlined in the Roadmap for Sweden at the end of 2024. This research discussed the implications of the Roadmap for Sweden on welfare governance within the Automated Decision-making (ADM) context as interpreted through a Weberian theoretical and methodological framework. Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy was utilized as an analytical tool to interpret the meaning of the proposed model based on its rationalization through historical motivations identified by the thematic data analysis of relevant official reports. It also constitutes a reference point, conceptualizing the broad context of governance and bureaucracy... (More)
- The AI Commission prescribed a governance model, namely centralized leadership, to tackle existing digitalization challenges, as outlined in the Roadmap for Sweden at the end of 2024. This research discussed the implications of the Roadmap for Sweden on welfare governance within the Automated Decision-making (ADM) context as interpreted through a Weberian theoretical and methodological framework. Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy was utilized as an analytical tool to interpret the meaning of the proposed model based on its rationalization through historical motivations identified by the thematic data analysis of relevant official reports. It also constitutes a reference point, conceptualizing the broad context of governance and bureaucracy into a form where social action theory facilitates redefining the background knowledge as to what end the means must serve, while the Iron Cage metaphor presents theoretical grounds for what would happen if the coherent means and end link is disrupted. As a result of this analysis, it is identified that the proposed model overlooks transparency and accountability, the essential elements of conflict between traditional welfare governance and digitalization by prioritizing operational efficiency through enhanced competency and know-how cultivated by cooperation and cross-sectoral collaboration. This represents the governance shift that treats the means as the intended end in welfare governance, which may result in domination of market forces given the market-oriented design of ADM. Consequently, this research contributes to the existing discussions regarding the failure of AI digitalization efforts by critically discussing the implications of the proposed model in dealing with this failure on the ADM context from a Weberian perspective. This context could be further elaborated by examining the ongoing implementation of the proposed model along with the perspective of the actors involved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9212262
- author
- Aytar, Gökhan LU
- supervisor
-
- Jannice Käll LU
- Timothy York LU
- organization
- course
- SOLM02 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Roadmap for Sweden, ADM, public sector, welfare bureaucracy, centralized digitalization, the ideal type of bureaucracy, social action, iron cage metaphor.
- language
- English
- id
- 9212262
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-22 11:29:17
- date last changed
- 2025-09-22 11:29:17
@misc{9212262,
abstract = {{The AI Commission prescribed a governance model, namely centralized leadership, to tackle existing digitalization challenges, as outlined in the Roadmap for Sweden at the end of 2024. This research discussed the implications of the Roadmap for Sweden on welfare governance within the Automated Decision-making (ADM) context as interpreted through a Weberian theoretical and methodological framework. Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy was utilized as an analytical tool to interpret the meaning of the proposed model based on its rationalization through historical motivations identified by the thematic data analysis of relevant official reports. It also constitutes a reference point, conceptualizing the broad context of governance and bureaucracy into a form where social action theory facilitates redefining the background knowledge as to what end the means must serve, while the Iron Cage metaphor presents theoretical grounds for what would happen if the coherent means and end link is disrupted. As a result of this analysis, it is identified that the proposed model overlooks transparency and accountability, the essential elements of conflict between traditional welfare governance and digitalization by prioritizing operational efficiency through enhanced competency and know-how cultivated by cooperation and cross-sectoral collaboration. This represents the governance shift that treats the means as the intended end in welfare governance, which may result in domination of market forces given the market-oriented design of ADM. Consequently, this research contributes to the existing discussions regarding the failure of AI digitalization efforts by critically discussing the implications of the proposed model in dealing with this failure on the ADM context from a Weberian perspective. This context could be further elaborated by examining the ongoing implementation of the proposed model along with the perspective of the actors involved.}},
author = {{Aytar, Gökhan}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Navigating the AI Commission’s Roadmap for Sweden within the Iron Cage Metaphor: An Interpretation of Its Implications for Welfare Governance in Establishing a Coherent Means and End Relation within Implementation of ADM from a Weberian Perspective}},
year = {{2025}},
}