Capacidad Estatal Algorítmica: ¿Quién Controla el Cálculo? Una Perspectiva Comparada

Abstract

The incorporation of algorithmic infrastructures into public administration is reshaping contemporary forms of state authority. This paper introduces the concept of algorithmic state capacity to examine the conditions under which digitalization strengthens—or fragments—state capacity. Drawing on a comparative analysis of Argentina, Chile, and Estonia, it argues that algorithmic state capacity is a contingent outcome of political decisions, institutional arrangements, and historically situated territorial configurations. The analytical strategy focuses on digital governance, control over critical infrastructures, and the relationship between the state and expert actors. From a historical-relational perspective, digitalization is understood as a contemporary mode of state penetration that affects citizens’ everyday experiences, institutional architectures, and the broader organization of collective life. The findings show that algorithmic infrastructures do not produce homogeneous effects; rather, they amplify preexisting configurations of the state apparatus. In this sense, digitalization does not automatically redefine statehood but reconfigures it according to the degree of public control over the strategic knowledge that structures state action. Algorithmic state capacity thus emerges as a contemporary dimension of infrastructural power, whose outcomes depend less on technological sophistication than on the political steering of calculation.