ABSTRACT

A dominant assumption in the street-level bureaucracy literature is that bureaucrats’ discretion is curtailed by automated systems. Drawing on survey and factual data (n = 549) from Dutch inspectors, we test the effect of automation on enforcement style and whether this can be explained by discretion-as-perceived. Our results show that automation (1) increases bureaucrats’ legal and accommodation style; (2) discretion-as-perceived does not mediate this effect; but (3) automation does decrease discretion-as-perceived. The main implication is that we do not find empirical evidence for curtailment and future research should move beyond discretion to understand effects of digital systems on bureaucrats’ behaviour.

摘要

街头官僚文献中的一个主要假设是官僚的自由裁量权受到自动化系统的限制。根据荷兰检查员的调查和事实数据 ( n = 549)，我们测试了自动化对执法方式的影响，以及这是否可以通过感知的自由裁量权来解释。我们的结果表明，自动化 (1) 增加了官僚的法律和住宿风格；(2) 自由裁量权感知不调节这种效果；但是 (3) 自动化确实会降低感知的自由裁量权。主要含义是我们没有找到削减的经验证据，未来的研究应该超越自由裁量权，以了解数字系统对官僚行为的影响。