Escaping The Durable Inequality: How The Use Of Nudge In Policy Making Sustain And Breaks The Inequality Cycles In The Digital Era

Feri Suprapto; Elmy Bonafita Zahro

Authors

Feri Suprapto Department of Sociology Universitas Indonesia, Depok
Elmy Bonafita Zahro Department of Psychology Universitas Brawijaya, Malang

Keywords:

durable inequality, nudge policy, digital governance, algorithmic inequality, ethical architecture.

Abstract

This systematic literature review examines how nudge-based policymaking in the digital era both sustains and disrupts durable inequality. Drawing on 57 peer-reviewed studies (2010–2025), it integrates insights from Durable Inequality Theory, Nudge Theory, and Digital Governance. The findings show that inequality is now embedded in data infrastructures and algorithmic systems that classify and rank citizens, creating ordinal citizenship. Four mechanisms of durability emerge: institutional path dependence, moral legitimation, cognitive entrenchment, and algorithmic feedback loops. Yet, digital architectures also enable disruption through ethical and reflexive design, via algorithmic transparency, participatory governance, redistributive frameworks, and intergenerational justice. The study proposes Digital Behavioural Institutionalism, viewing inequality as co-produced by behavioural governance, institutional structures, and data infrastructures. Policy implications call for algorithmic audits, citizen co-design, data justice, and reciprocity-based nudging to ensure that digital governance promotes inclusion and transforms the ethical and technological foundations of social life.

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