The algorithms within the public sector and their governance

Abstract

After quickly outlining the role of administrative law in the management of social complexity, the use of algorithms internally by public administrations are examined. In this first part the problems that algorithms have raised and the solutions that literature and jurisprudence have offered will be discussed. In a second step, however, to overcome the binarism between acceptance and rejection of the digitisation of administrative procedures, the topic is approached from a broader perspective, that of the ‘public administration of algorithms’. In this perspective we examine the opportunity to interpret some provisions of the Italian Code of Digital Administration (CAD), such as software re-use, as instruments of IT coordination.