Samenvatting

The Dutch childcare benefits scandal – the Dutch tax authority used doubtful algorithms to catch suspected benefits fraud – can be understand as an expression of irrationality that manifests itself in the political, bureaucratic and technological context of algorithmic governance. The aim of this essay to critically discuss the nature of the bureaucratic processes of algorithmic governance and the irrationality that is intermingled with such processes. This essay shows that bureaucratic processes of algorithmic governance are marked by an inherent irrationality. The Dutch childcare benefits scandal provides a case that reveals a dark, Kafkaesque irrationality in the operations of the tax authority.