Reijer Passchier: "Digitalization and the (im)balance of power among the three branches"

With particular reference to the case of the Netherlands, this article explores what the digitalization of states means for the balance of power among the three branches of government. In a constitutional democratic state, the judicial, legislative, and executive branches should be separated, capable of keeping one another in check and working together as equal partners. However, digitalization tends to especially benefit the executive, while the judiciary and legislature have seen their position undermined. So far, it is mainly the executive that has succeeded in taking advantage of digital technologies. Meanwhile, digitalization has made it increasingly difficult for judges and parliament to scrutinize the executive, partly due to the opacity (the ‘black box-character’) of many digital applications and the institutional complexity they typically involve. By adopting such means as digital technologies themselves, arranging better support from experts in the field of digitalization and regulating digitalization better, the non-executive branches of government can still catch up.

Date and time: 16 June 2022. 10:00--12:00

This is an online event, please follow the link to Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3a9bc67b8ba0b74d038a496fd05bd8c73d%40thread.tacv2/1655039391066?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22dfdc0203-79f4-4b7a-b4f3-caca1106f02f%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22af7f5a56-ad68-4921-abaa-b3e2358ad6de%22%7d