Defining and classifying technocrat‐led and technocratic governments

Abstract

Governments led by technocrats remain a nebulous category in political science literature, with little clarity about how they differ from party governments, how many have existed and how we can differentiate between them. This article aims to provide that conceptual and empirical clarity. Having proposed an ideal type definition of ‘technocratic government’, it sets out three conditions for an operational definition of a ‘technocrat’ and, on that basis, lists the 24 technocrat‐led governments that have existed in 27 European Union (EU) democracies from the end of the Second World War until June 2013. It then classifies these according to their partisan/technocrat composition and remit. This allows for the presentation of a typology of four different types of technocrat‐led governments and the definition of ‘full technocratic governments’ as those which contain a majority of technocrats and – unlike caretaker governments – have the capacity to change the status quo. The article concludes that full technocratic governments remain extremely rare in EU democracies since there have been only six cases – of which three have occurred in the last decade.

An examination of independent fiscal councils and their orientation to the future and policy making

“…Expertise, as expressed through and in the work of research, advisory committees and special advisors, forms an important part of policy making, but the privileging of technical knowledge and expertise, unconstrained by political processes, is what characterises technocracy. Technocracy is most visible when individuals with technical expertise occupy the positions of government normally taken by politicians [82]. More broadly, technocracy is also evident when democratic deliberations by elected officials are substituted for the application of the scientific method and specialised knowledge to address social issues and questions of policy making.…”

Taking Care of Policy in Times of Crisis: Comparative Lessons from Belgium’s Longest Caretaker Government

“…The literature on caretaker governments is scarce and only recently has there been an uptake in comparative research and lesson-drawing on the nature of caretaker conventions (Mcdonnell and Valbruzzi 2014;Schleiter and Belu 2015). Three distinctions are relevant for our analysis.…”

“…Technocratic governments have a mandate for change, whereas the remit of caretaker governments is explicitly limited. During the financial crisis several countries in the Eurozone were governed by technocratic governments to push through major policy changes (McDonnell and Valbruzzi 2014). Belgium was ruled by a caretaker government and not a technocratic government, and its scope for policy change was limited.…”

Three Technocratic Cabinets in the Czech Republic: A Symptom of Party Failure?

“…Most were appointed in post -communist countries, such as Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, but other examples of such cabinets can be found in Greece, Finland, Portugal, and Italy (cf. Pastorella 2013McDonnell and Valbruzzi 2014).…”

“…Therefore, technocratic cabinets (composed of non -partisan experts) might be perceived as symptoms of (or different forms of) party failure, and they might present a challenge (as well as an alternative) to partisan cabinets (for discussion see Rose 1969;Laver andShepsle 1994: 5-8, Bermeo 2003;Mair 2008;Bäck et al 2009;Schleiter 2013: 38;Van Biezen 2014;McDonnell and Valbruzzi 2014;Pastorella 2015;Brunclík 2015a).…”