Technopolitical Energy Governance as Administrative Closure: Digitalisation and the Depoliticisation of Energy Politics in Iran and Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Digitalisation is widely framed as a route to more efficient and participatory public administration. In authoritarian settings, however, digital governance often works less as administrative improvement than as a technopolitical instrument for managing dissent and insulating policy from contestation. This article examines technopolitical energy governance as administrative closure through which political conflict is recast as technical management, grassroots participation is constrained, and accountability is displaced into bureaucratic routines. Based on a comparative qualitative study using policy documents and semi‐structured interviews, the article analyses how digital infrastructures reshape energy policy making and redefine who is entitled to participate. Focusing on Iran and Saudi Arabia, it traces two converging logics. In Iran, digital systems become most visible during crises such as fuel price reforms and blackouts. In Saudi Arabia, digitalisation is embedded within long‐term development planning, where grassroots engagement is selectively structured, narrowing opportunities for meaningful participation in energy policy.