Algorithms and vulnerable citizens: The cost of Australia’s experiment with automation in the governance of its social welfare system

This paper will disentangle the unique properties of algorithmic governance models from their historical origins to identify the destabilising consequences of governing or regulating by an algorithm.3 To isolate the ways in which algorithmic governance changes the quality of bureaucracy, the analysis will consider the administrative and policy contexts in which algorithms exist. This includes the people who design, implement and interact with algorithmic governance, meaning “the data and users upon which they act and the institutions that provide these services” (Gillespie, 2014). Empirical evidence suggests that the deployment of algorithmic governance mechanisms can have disastrous consequences for the legitimacy of public services and can compromise existing control mechanisms that regulate the relationship between the citizen and the state (Galloway, 2007, p.89). Finally, this paper will identify a repertoire of strategies for controlling these challenges when improvements to governance performance are pursued through algorithmic means.