Disability welfare in the age of techno-feudalism: a systematic review

This article examines how techno-feudal dynamics are reshaping disability-related welfare through digital surveillance, automated eligibility and platform-driven fiscal constraints. It fills a gap by connecting techno-feudal theory with empirical research on digitalised disability welfare and Basic Income, using Keohane and Nye’s transnational international relations lens to show how digital infrastructures reconfigure sovereign authority and to assess whether (and under what conditions) Basic Income can mitigate the resulting forms of techno-feudal domination. This article is pertinent because it unifies techno-feudal theory, disability-welfare evidence and Basic Income analysis to explain shifting power, identify harms and propose an institutional alternative. Drawing on literature and civil-society reports from 2018 to 2025, it analyses how algorithmic systems reorganise access to rights. Findings show that automated architectures misclassify disabled claimants, increase burdens and embed punitive conditionality, shifting power towards opaque private vendors. The article indicates that by reducing conditionality and surveillance, Basic Income offers a credible alternative. It concludes that techno-feudalism is a useful framework for understanding digital welfare governance and underscores the need for models that restore autonomy and accountability in automated welfare states.