Governing Artificial Intelligence in Emerging Democracies: Challenges of Regulation, Ethics and State Capacity

Abstract

This paper looks upon how developing democracies may create AI governance frameworks that are both successful and context-sensitive while upholding social fairness, democratic accountability and human rights. In emerging democracies, especially in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia the quick uptake of AI has exceeded institutional and regulatory capabilities. The straight adoption of Western AI governance models is insufficient because to weak legal frameworks, a lack of technological knowledge and a variety of cultural and ethical traditions. A qualitative multimethod research strategy is used in the study. It uses process tracing techniques to compare Brazil, Kenya and India. To find recurrent governance issues, a systematic review of over 180 peer-reviewed sources was conducted. In order to assess the normative and policy aspects of AI governance, the study is further supported by deliberative democracy theory, international human rights legislation and the capabilities approach. The findings reveal three major weaknesses in AI governance across emerging democracies fragmented institutional coordination, insufficient technical expertise and weak legal enforcement mechanisms. The study also finds that dominant Western AI ethics frameworks fail to fully address the cultural, religious and postcolonial realities of developing societies highlighting, the importance of contextual approaches like Ubuntu and Islamic ethics. Furthermore, AI acts as a double-edged tool by improving public services and transparency while simultaneously enabling mass surveillance, biometric profiling and democratic backsliding. Instead of implementing unduly complicated regulatory models, emerging democracies should build adaptable, context sensitive AI governance frameworks that are in line with current institutional capacity. To guarantee that AI promotes democratic consolidation and human rights protection, more regional collaboration, robust democratic protections, active civil society engagement and unambiguous protections against politically motivated monitoring, are crucial.