Digitalization of Public Administration: Legal Implications of Implementing an Electronic-Based Government System on the Quality of Public Services

Abstract

The accelerating digitalization of public administration has transformed the traditional bureaucratic paradigm into an electronic-based government system that reshapes how citizens access, evaluate, and contest public services. This article investigates the legal implications of implementing an Electronic-Based Government System (Sistem Pemerintahan Berbasis Elektronik/SPBE) on the quality of public services, with particular attention to administrative accountability, due process, personal data protection, and cybersecurity governance. Using a normative juridical (yuridis normatif) research method combined with statutory, conceptual, and comparative-law approaches, the study examines Indonesia's principal legal instruments governing SPBE alongside recent empirical and doctrinal literature from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. The analysis finds that digital transformation measurably enhances efficiency, transparency, and citizen satisfaction, yet the absence of an integrated legal framework linking public-service law, government-administration law, and personal-data-protection law generates accountability gaps, unclear liability for system failure, and weak remedies for citizens harmed by automated or negligent digital processes. The novelty of this study lies in synthesizing administrative-law accountability doctrine with empirical service-quality indicators into a single normative framework, proposing the state's position as a constitutional service-and-data controller responsible for lawful, secure, and citizen-centered digital governance, and in demonstrating that this legal-accountability gap is a structural, cross-jurisdictional feature of electronic-government transitions rather than an isolated national deficiency.