Automated Discretion

Abstract

Governments have automated their public tasks, like individual decision making, in a steady pace. As Bovens & Zouridis wrote in 2002 this included a shift in power from the street level bureaucrats to system level bureacrats. In 2019 the computer that says no is recognised by many citizens. In this working paper authors discuss recent research on the interlinked government and the new civil servants who exercise discretion: data analysts.