"Complete the Test First" Prescreening Tests at the Margins of Digital Public Administration

Abstract

Western welfare states are rushing to digitalise access to public services and citizens' interactions with public institutions. Finland exemplifies this trend towards digital‐first administration. In this article, we discuss digital public administration and the interaction between citizens and the state through the example of digital prescreening tests. Digital prescreening tests are interactive webpages or mobile apps in which a citizen‐user is required to answer questions about their situation before they are granted contact with a civil servant, access to a public service, or further advice. We analyse these tests theoretically and empirically, asking what their legal status is, how their developers perceive them, and what impacts they have on citizens' legal standing and rights. Prescreening tests may be useful tools for citizens, but may also lead to harmful gatekeeping and socially unsustainable digital public administration. We argue that prescreening is an important, yet neglected phenomenon. Regulatory policy and academic research have focused on issues regarding automating decision‐making processes, while advice‐giving and first points‐of‐contact have received little attention. Drawing on discussions on street‐level bureaucracy and its connections with digital systems, we analyse prescreening through interviews and legal sources. Our analysis shows how this new "screen‐level bureaucracy" of prescreening tests influences both service provision and access as well as the rationalities and modalities of digital public administration.