Digital discretion: A systematic literature review of ICT and street-level discretion

TLDR

Street‑level bureaucrats traditionally exercise wide discretion, but digital discretion via ICT is proposed to reduce this personal footprint by influencing or replacing discretionary practices. The study investigates whether digital discretion changes public policy outcomes, under what conditions, and how technology features affect ethical, democratic, professional, and relational values. The authors review 44 peer‑reviewed articles from 1998 to 2017 and apply the public service values framework to assess how digital discretion may strengthen ethical and democratic values while weakening professional and relational ones. The review finds that macro‑level policymaker considerations and micro‑level professionalization shape digital discretion’s diffusion and impact, and that street‑level bureaucracy is shrinking as more roles become digitally mediated.

Abstract

This study reviews 44 peer-reviewed articles on digital discretion published in the period from 1998 to January 2017. Street-level bureaucrats have traditionally had a wide ability to exercise discretion stirring debate since they can add their personal footprint to public policies. Digital discret ion is suggested to reduce this footprint by influencing or replacing their discretionary practices using ICT. What is less researched is whether digital discretion can cause changes in public policy outcomes, and under what conditions such changes can occur. Using the concept of public service values, we suggest that digital discretion can strengthen ethical and democratic values but weaken professional and relational values. Furthermore, we conclude that contextual factors such as considerations made by policy makers on the macro-level and the degree of professionalization of street-level bureaucrats on the micro-level are important for understanding the diffusion and impact of digital discretion. In addition, inherent features of technology can be discussed at all levels in relation to their aims and tasks. We conclude that the scope of street-level bureaucracy is decreasing, and more and more street-level bureaucracies are turned into digital bureaucracies characterized by digital bureaucrats operating computers instead of interacting face-to-face with clients.