When do experts trump politicians? attitudes towards technocracy in 9 European & Latin American democracies
(2018) The Annual Conference of the Hungarian Political Science Association — Location: Budapest, Hungary (8.June.2018)
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- Authors
Chiru, Mihail 
- Abstract
- Technocratic cabinets and expert, non-political ministers appointed in partisan cabinets have become a common reality in recent decades in both young and older democracies, but we are still ignorant about how citizens see this change and what values, perceptions and experiences drive their attitudes towards technocratic government. The article explores the latter topic by drawing on recent comparative survey data from 9 countries, both young and consolidated democracies from Europe and Latin America. The article reveals that two individual level factors trigger strong support for technocracy. First, the replacement of politicians with expert, non-political ministers is very attractive for citizens who display low levels of political efficacy. Second, citizens sharing authoritarian values are also more likely to want alternative technocratic solutions than those with a socially liberal mindset. Another contribution of the paper is to illustrate that individual level corruption perceptions also fuel support for technocracy. At macro level, technocracy appears to be a more acceptable solution for citizens in countries were the quality of democracy is deficient and in political systems that have experimented with technocratic cabinets.
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Citations
Chiru, M., & Enyedi, Z. (2018). When do experts trump politicians? attitudes towards technocracy in 9 European & Latin American democracies. The Annual Conference of the Hungarian Political Science Association, Budapest, Hungary. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/60968