Edward Elgar Publishing Nobody’s Decision: AI and the Perfection of Bureaucracy (Governance, Technology and Society series)

In this incisive book, Roy Heidelberg explores artificial intelligence (AI) not just as a powerful tool but as a system to manage society. Heidelberg considers the way that AI advances rather than overcomes the logic of bureaucracy through efficiency, objectivity and impersonal control. Situated within core debates in political theory and philosophy, Nobody’s Decision assesses AI’s socio-political impact on modern governance and legitimacy, encouraging readers to question the story of AI as technological progress by showing its role in the modern dilemma of accounting for who decides in our political systems. Heidelberg explores the tradeoffs between promises of fairness and order, and the exclusion of human judgement and agency, a tradeoff intrinsic to the political situation of AI. The book makes novel conceptual contributions that provide new ways to understand and critique AI within political systems. It challenges the dominant narrative of AI as a disruptive tool, instead framing it as a continuation of political technology that reshapes human-scale governance. Presenting an in-depth discussion of the politics of AI, this book is a vital read for scholars and students of political theory, philosophy, and sociology, as well as technology studies and innovation policy. Practitioners and regulatory policymakers in public administration will also benefit from its valuable insights.