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Politics and Governance Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2463 Volume 8, Issue 4 (2020) VarietiesVarieties ofof TechnocraticTechnocratic PopulismPopulism aroundaround thethe WorldWorld Editors Petra Guasti and Lenka Buštíková Politics and Governance, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 4 Varieties of Technocratic Populism around the World Published by Cogitatio Press Rua Fialho de Almeida 14, 2º Esq., 1070-129 Lisbon Portugal Academic Editors Petra Guasti (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic) Lenka Buštíková (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic / Arizona State University, USA) Available online at: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance This issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). Articles may be reproduced provided that credit is given to the original andPolitics and Governance is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. Table of Contents A Marriage of Convenience: Responsive Populists and Responsible Experts Petra Guasti and Lenka Buštíková 468–472 Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013–2020) Petra Guasti 473–484 Technocratic Populism in Italy after Berlusconi: The Trendsetter and his Disciples Antonino Castaldo and Luca Verzichelli 485–495 Best in Covid: Populists in the Time of Pandemic Lenka Buštíková and Pavol Baboš 496–508 Populists and Technocrats in Latin America: Conflict, Cohabitation, and Cooperation Rodrigo Barrenechea and Eduardo Dargent 509–519 Experts in Government: What for? Ambiguities in Public Opinion Towards Technocracy Ernesto Ganuza and Joan Font 520–532 After the Cartel Party: ‘Extra-Party’ and ‘Intra-Party’ Techno-Populism Jose Piquer and Anton M. M. Jäger 533–544 Technocratic Populism à la Française? The Roots and Mechanisms of Emmanuel Macron’s Success Michel Perottino and Petra Guasti 545–555 Different Strokes for Different Folks: Who Votes for Technocratic Parties? Maria Snegovaya 556–567 Populism versus Technocracy? Populist Responses to the Technocratic Nature of the EU Marion Reiser and Jörg Hebenstreit 568–579 Technocratic Populism in Hybrid Regimes: Georgia on My Mind and in My Pocket David Aprasidze and David S. Siroky 580–589 Table of Contents Expert Ministers in New Democracies: Delegation, Communist Legacies, or Technocratic Populism? Elena Semenova 590–602 Politics and Governance (ISSN: 2183–2463) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 468–472 DOI: 10.17645/pag.v8i4.3876 Editorial A Marriage of Convenience: Responsive Populists and Responsible Experts Petra Guasti 1,* and Lenka Buštíková 2 1 Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 110 00 Prague, Czech Republic; E-Mail: [email protected] 2 School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author Submitted: 30 November 2020 | Published: 17 December 2020 Abstract This thematic issue, “Varieties of Technocratic Populism around the World,” investigates ideological origins of technocratic populism and situates it among other types of populism. It is composed of 11 articles that bring together 18 scholars from around the world with a wide variety of perspectives. Technocratic populism is an output-oriented populism that directly links voters to leaders via expertise. It emerges as a response to a crisis of governance, reproaches mainstream parties for it and offers solutions that challenge traditional left–right divisions in politics. New leaders combine populism with tech- nocracy: They offer expertise, often harnessed in business, but also a direct, personalized link to ‘ordinary’ citizens. Above all, they politicize expertise to gain legitimacy. Technocratic populism primarily responds to frustrations of the electorate with poor governance, not to nativist grievances or to the plight of the most vulnerable citizens. In a new social contract, it is expected that voters renounce politics and political parties and that they turn into spectators who observe how techno- cratic elites adopt solutions that benefit the ‘ordinary people.’ Technocratic populism is a growing challenge to pluralistic forms of representative democracy and calls for further scholarly attention. Keywords expertise; governance; grievance; pandemic; populism; technocracy; technocratic populism Issue This editorial is part of the issue “Varieties of Technocratic Populism around the World” edited by Petra Guasti (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic) and Lenka Buštíková (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic / Arizona State University, USA). © 2020 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction Technocratic populism is rooted in two alterna- tives to representative democracy—technocracy and This thematic issue, “Varieties of Technocratic Populism populism (Bickerton & Accetti, 2017, 2021; Caramani, around the World,” investigates ideological origins of 2017). Citizens face the duality of technocratic populism. technocratic populism and situates it among other Populism is responsive and places the ‘people’ at the types of populism. Technocratic populism is an output- epicenter of democracy (Kaltwasser, 2014). Technocracy oriented populism that directly links voters to leaders via stands for responsible governance, expertise, compe- expertise. It emerges as a response to a crisis of gover- tence, effectiveness, and ‘optimal outcomes.’ It is dis- nance, reproaches mainstream parties for it and offers tinct from bureaucracy, which is a mode of gover- solutions that challenge traditional left–right divisions in nance, because technocracy is a logic of governance. politics. New leaders combine populism with technoc- Technocratic approaches focus on problem-solving and racy: They offer expertise, often harnessed in business, conflict neutralization (O’Donnell, 1994), and emphasize but also a direct, personalized link to ‘ordinary’ citizens. a regulatory state that makes rules and monitors their Above all, they politicize expertise to gain legitimacy. implementation (Majone, 1994). Politics and Governance, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 468–472 468 Populists and technocrats are anti-political actors in power, they combine populist responsiveness with with an ‘unmediated,’ proceduralist view of democracy expert-driven responsibility. Finally, the pandemic facili- (Rosanvallon, 2011; Taggart, 2002), which implies that tates democratic decay and enhances the appeal of tech- they embrace a non-pluralist concept of a society, the nocratic populism. We outline these lessons in more existence of a unified general interest, and a direct, detail now before we summarize individual papers. unmediated, relationship between the people and their leaders. Technocratic populism is an anti-elite ideology 2.1. Technocratic Populism is a Distinct Type of Populism that instrumentalizes governance and exploits compe- tence. Technocratic populists cultivate the appearance Technocratic populism is a unique type of populism. of authenticity and proximity to the ordinary people but It responds to a salient contemporaneous grievance of also demobilize the electorate by instilling civic apathy voters in many democracies related to sub-par gover- (Buštíková & Guasti, 2019). In many instances, techno- nance by mainstream political elites. It is neither a resid- cratic populists claim to ‘run the state as a firm,’ which ual category, nor a hybrid type defined by centrism. gives them cover to delegitimize political opponents Populism co-exists with diverse host ideologies and log- because they lack ‘expertise’ and relish in the cycles of ics, beyond nativism or socialism (cf. Art, 2020; Caiani parliamentary deliberations. & Graziano, 2019; Zulianello, 2020). Furthermore, it can- Technocratic populism primarily responds to frustra- not be automatically linked to illiberalism (Norris & tions of the electorate with poor governance, not to Inglehart, 2019). nativist grievances or to the plight of the most vulnera- ble citizens. In a new social contract, it is expected that 2.2. Technocratic Populism Emerges When Party voters renounce politics and political parties and that Systems Weaken they turn into spectators who observe how technocratic elites adopt solutions that benefit the ‘ordinary people’ Two conditions are conducive for the emergence of tech- (cf. Urbinati, 2014). In sum, technocratic populism is a nocratic populism—the implosion of the existing party growing challenge to pluralistic forms of representative system (Castaldo & Verzichelli, 2020; Perottino & Guasti, democracy. As such, it calls for a scholarly attention both 2020) and the exhaustion of the left–right ideological from historical and comparative perspectives. cleavage (Buštíková & Guasti, 2019). Technocratic pop- The thematic issue is composed of 11 articles that ulism combines the redemptive promise of populism bring together 18 scholars from around the world with with the technocratic promise of competent governance a wide variety of perspectives. Five case studies inves- (Aprasidze & Siroky, 2020; Perottino & Guasti, 2020) and tigate the evolution, public support and consequences can restructure intra-party logic (Piquer & Jäger, 2020). of technocratic populism for democracy in the Czech It rejects existing parties and political ideologies as obso- Republic (Guasti, 2020a),