This book represents the first comprehensive study of how technocracy currently challenges representative democracy and asks how technocratic politics undermines democratic legitimacy. How strong is its challenge to democratic institutions?The book offers a solid theory and conceptualization of technocratic politics and the technocratic challenge is analyzed empirically at all levels of the national and supra-national institutions and actors such as cabinets parties the EU independent bodies central banks and direct democratic campaigns in a comparative and policy perspective. It takes an in-depth analysis addressing elitism meritocracy de-politicization efficiency neutrality reliance on science and distrust toward party politics and ideologies and their impact when pitched against democratic responsiveness accountability citizens' input and pluralist competition. In the current crisis of democracy this book assesses the effects of the technocratic critique against representative institutions which are perceived to be unable to deal with complex and global problems. It analyzes demands for competent and responsible policy making in combination with the simultaneous populist resistance to experts. The book will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative politics political theory policy analysis multi-level governance as well as practitioners working in bureaucracies media think-tanks and policy making. |The Technocratic Challenge to Democracy | Politics
