Technocracy for the people

Technocracy for the people means experts whom citizens can check

Hook

Experts already run more of the state than most voters see. The question is whether anyone can inspect them.

Claim

Opinion: technical power is growing either way, so the useful fight is over whether citizens can inspect it and whether it answers to them.

Evidence found, labelled by type.

For expert-led government:

• A survey experiment on 5,000 Italians (Vittori, Paulis, Pilet and Rojon, Electoral Studies, 2023) found that policy proposals were more likely to be accepted when attributed to technocratic ministers than to party-instructed ones. The effect was bigger on economic issues and among people likely to disagree with the policy.
• A study of Monti’s appointment (Merler, 2021, cited by Vittori and colleagues) found it coincided with a rise in satisfaction with democracy and positive economic expectations. Coinciding is not causing.
• A 2023 study (Castaldo and Verzichelli, International Political Science Review) examines why Italy turned to technocrats, including the decline of parties. Only the abstract was read.

Caution:

• The evidence on outcomes is thinner. Federico Steinberg of the Elcano Royal Institute, quoted by Knowledge at Wharton, said a technocrat in charge “does not guarantee that they are going to solve the problems of a country”.
• Technocratic governments are often criticised for limited democratic legitimacy.
• The 1930s technocracy movement lost its momentum within months of its big speech (see the history note).

Real examples: Italy’s Monti (2011 to 2013, fully technocratic) and Draghi (2021 to 2022, technocrat-led with party ministers).

The best objection (opinion): choices that look technical contain value choices, such as whose costs count. Experts can be right about facts and still impose a view of what should happen. If citizens cannot see the assumptions, the expertise is not checkable and becomes rule without consent. “Technocracy for the people” is a design claim: publish the assumptions, the data and who decided.

What cannot be shown: that technocratic governments perform better or worse on any single outcome; the sources found give no clean comparison.

Story

When Italy’s parties could not agree, they handed the job to outsiders twice in ten years. A survey found people accepted proposals more readily when technocrats presented them. That should worry as much as it reassures, because acceptance is not the same as being right.

Sources

• Vittori et al., survey experiment in Italy (open preprint): https://orbilu.uni.lu/bitstream/10993/57601/1/Vittori_et_al_2023_pre_print_version.pdf
• Castaldo and Verzichelli, 2023 (abstract): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01925121231216438
• Knowledge at Wharton: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/can-technocrats-lead-europe-out-of-its-financial-crisis/
• American Heritage on the 1930s movement: https://www.americanheritage.com/howard-scott-and-his-technocratic-utopia

Check before posting

• Merler (2021) was read only through Vittori’s summary; open it before citing the Monti result directly.
• The full Castaldo and Verzichelli text, if any claim about why parties handed over ministerial choices is used.
• Test the phrase “tehnokracija za narod” with a small audience.

Counterargument

Experts without elections can ignore people who disagree. Even with open data, most citizens will not read assumptions, so inspection may be theory only. The best answer is that some people (journalists, auditors, a rival party) will read, and that is often enough.

Post angles

Facebook (Croatian) Stručnjaci već odlučuju o puno čemu: o kamatama, cijeni vode, o tome kamo ide cesta. Pitanje nije hoće li stručnjaci odlučivati, nego može li ih netko provjeriti. Talijani su dvaput pozvali stručnjake kad stranke nisu mogle same, a istraživanje pokazuje da ljudi lakše prihvaćaju prijedloge koje iznose stručnjaci. To je i utješno i zabrinjavajuće. Zato je cilj “tehnokracija za narod”: stručnost koja pokazuje podatke i pretpostavke.

LinkedIn (English) Experts already shape much of public life. The live question is whether citizens can inspect them. Italy twice turned to technocratic governments (Monti, Draghi), and a survey experiment found proposals were more accepted when presented by technocrats. Acceptance is not proof of being right. A workable version of “technocracy for the people” publishes the data, the assumptions and the decision-maker, so that someone outside the room can check.

Links

Technocracy began as a 1930s engineers’ craze that lost its momentum within months What even is democracy, and why there are at least five answers Protesters can win an election, but governing is a different skill