Increasingly secret, complex and inscrutable computational systems are being used to intensify existing power relations and to create new ones; in particular, they are being used to govern. To be all-things-considered morally permissible new, or newly intense, power relations must meet standards of procedural legitimacy and proper authority. This is necessary for them to protect and realise democratic values of individual liberty, relational equality, and collective self-determination. For governing power in particular to be legitimate and have proper authority, it must meet a publicity requirement: reasonably competent members of the governed community must be able to determine that they are being governed legitimately and with proper authority. The publicity requirement can be satisfied only if the powerful can explain their decision-making to members of their political community. At least some duties of explanation are therefore democratic duties. This paper first sets out the foregoing argument, then applies it to opaque computational systems, and clarifies precisely what kinds of explanations are necessary to fulfil these democratic values.

翻译：日益隐秘、复杂且难以理解的计算机系统正被用于强化现有权力关系并创造新的权力关系；尤其是，它们被用于治理。从全面权衡的道德角度来看，新的或强化后的权力关系必须满足程序合法性及正当权威的标准。这对于它们保护和实现个人自由、关系平等及集体自决等民主价值而言是必要的。特别是治理权力要具备合法性及正当权威，就必须满足公开性要求：被治理社群中具备合理能力的成员必须能够判定他们正受到合法且具有正当权威的治理。只有当掌权者能够向政治社群成员解释其决策过程时，公开性要求才能得到满足。因此，至少部分解释义务属于民主义务。本文首先阐述上述论点，随后将其应用于不透明的计算机系统，并精确阐明实现这些民主价值需要何种类型的解释。