Do Dutch politicians need a crash course in Data Science?

Description

A month ago, the well known Dutch tv show “Zondag met Lubach” discussed the knowledge of Dutch politicians on digital technology, or rather, the lack thereof. The presenter, Arjen Lubach, spoke of a digital illiterate democracy. While I have always been interested in politics, I had never thought about the influence of data science on Dutch politics and the Dutch government before. With the Dutch elections coming up, it is an important and just as well interesting topic to discuss. Are the government and politicians even aware of the issues and opportunities of digital technology and more specifically, data science? In this article we’ll delve into the current state of data science in Dutch politics, with the help of the expert knowledge of Bert-Jan Butijn (PhD student at Jheronimus Academy of Data Science) and Shirley Kempeneer (Assistant professor at Tilburg University).