Vulnerability in the Digital Administrative State
Why do certain citizens find digital government so convenient and others struggle so much with it? Does administrative law take into account that sometimes citizens do not exercise their rights because of technological and bureaucratic hurdles? How can we empower all individuals to exercise their rights on equal terms in the digital age? And how do we close the gap between administrative rules and principles conceived at a time when there were no AI systems and the modern challenges of automation? This project aims to answer these questions.
Introduction
What connects us to government? And what disconnects us from it? Sometimes it is law; other times, bureaucracy; and more recently, digital technology. For many citizens, digital government has added a new layer of bureaucracy and complexity that is particularly challenging when they need government the most and feel the most vulnerable: the death of a loved one, unemployment or a divorce may place any citizen in a position of vulnerability. Under such circumstances, they may have limited time and mental capacity to fill in online administrative forms and get acquainted with digital identities (e.g., DigiD), and thus require additional assistance.
As a result of this administrative vulnerability, that is, the full or partial inability to exercise rights before public authorities and participate in public life on equal terms, citizens may feel excluded and unfairly treated by government. The design of digital government overlooks this administrative vulnerability. Therefore, this concept that most of us know too well, still does not exist in Western systems of public law that regard the citizen as an individual with the average ability to engage with government and its digital tools. Unequal access to digital government is, nonetheless, an urgent problem with both scientific and societal relevance. The poignant Dutch Childcare Benefits scandal revealed that thousands of vulnerable citizens were regarded as fraudsters, partly because of the failure to engage with complex digital bureaucracy and the lack of human assistance.
Aims of the project
- Advance the novel concept of administrative vulnerability as a type of inequality;
- Define the causes and typologies of vulnerability;
- Understand how administrative law should be reshaped to improve the position of citizens placed in vulnerable situations;
- On the grounds of empirical and informal interactions with NGOs working with citizens placed in vulnerable situations, provide new guidance for more empowering policymaking and inclusive digital government;
- Rethink the interpretation of principles of good administration in light of the challenges of digitalization and automation;
- Contribute to the construction of more empathic legal and bureaucratic systems.
Research Team
Principal investigator
Junior Reseachers
Anne Spijkstra, PhD candidate
Malou Beck, PhD candidate
Trainee
Sofia Birnoveau, LLB Global student (2023/2024)
Funding
Past Events
26 April 2024
Inaugural Address, Professor Sofia Ranchordás: Staat der blinden, staat der zienden: over bestuurlijke blindheid (Administrative blindness: All the Citizens the State Cannot See)
30 November 2023
Conference 'Vulnerability, Disability Rights, and Digital Government, MindLabs, Tilburg University: International conference (co-sponsored by the Norwegian Science Foundation internationalization fund project on algorithmic accountability, PI: Christian Fieseler) on disability rights, the design of digital government and automation systems, and causes of vulnerability. The conference included international academic experts and NGO representatives. Keynotes: Delia Ferria (Maynooth University) and Payal Arora (Utrecht University).
21 September 2023
Workshop Kwetsbaarheid binnen het bestuursrecht (Vulnerability in Dutch Administrative law), MindLabs, Tilburg University: conference in Dutch, bringing together academics and NGOs to discuss how individuals experience vulnerability in different subfields of public law. Keynote: Stans Goudsmit, Kinderombudsman van Rotterdam.