From Discretion to Calculation: How Analog Automation Shaped Digitalization of Finnish Social Assistance
本文提出“模拟自动化”概念，通过分析芬兰社会救助系统四十年来的立法与政策文件，揭示组织与法律变化如何逐步压缩裁量空间，为数字自动化铺路，对理解数字化转型的历史背景有重要价值。
ABSTRACT Automation in public administration is often seen as a recent, purely digital phenomenon that transforms decision‐making and governance. This article challenges that view by elucidating a historical continuum in the automation of administrative decision‐making. It introduces the concept of analog automation to highlight how complex social, organizational, legal, and historical factors have impacted decision‐makers' discretionary space and paved the way for digital automation. Drawing on public administration, science and technology studies, and sociolegal scholarship, the article uses analog automation to study the gradual yet significant change of automation in Finland's social assistance system over four decades. Analysis of legislative and policy documents shows how discretionary space has been gradually restricted by changes in organizational structures and practices and their adoption into legal obligations. The article provides historical context to current debates on digital transformation, showing how long‐standing institutional developments enable automation and how standardization and discretion have become increasingly intertwined.