Associate Professor Christopher Gad was interviewed for Danish media, DR, about how the digitalisation of the Danish state affects citizens’ trust in governing institutions. The Danish government has recently launched 22 initiatives that are meant to ensure “world class digital service”. One of the initiatives is a platform through which the citizen gets access to all the data the state registers about each individual. The idea is to increase the citizens’ trust in the state, as citizens get an overview of their own data and become aware of what the state knows about them.
Gad argues that as contact between citizens and the state becomes more and more digital, trust in the state is challenged, as citizens no longer have personal encounters with competent and helpful case workers and other personel, but have to manage IT systems on their own. The challenges citizens might face during their digital encounters with the state can result in the citizens feeling left to their own devices.