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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

The technocratic side of populist attitudes: evidence from the Spanish case

Pablo Fernandez-Vazquez, +2 more
- 14 Feb 2022 - 
- Vol. 46, Iss: 1, pp 73-99
TLDR
In a survey conducted in Spain using a comprehensive battery of items tapping into technocracy and populism, it was found that populist attitudes correlate with two dimensions of technocracy: anti-politics and pro-expertise sentiments as discussed by the authors .
Abstract
Abstract Populism and technocracy represent a challenge to pluralist party democracies. The first promotes the rule by ‘the people’, while the second demands the rule by independent experts. The literature on populism and technocracy as challenges to party democracy is burgeoning. Less is known about citizens’ attitudes towards the ideas that underpin both populism and technocracy. In this article these opinions are explored in a survey conducted in Spain using a comprehensive battery of items tapping into technocracy and populism. It is found that populist attitudes correlate with two dimensions of technocracy: anti-politics and pro-expertise sentiments. A latent-class analysis shows that the largest sample group simultaneously endorses rule by the people and the enrolment of experts in political decision making. In the article this group is named technopopulists. The article challenges extant views of populism and technocracy as separate alternatives and spurs works on voter demand for the involvement of experts in politics. Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2027116 .

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Citations
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Peer ReviewDOI

Citizens’ preferences for liberal democracy and its deformations: evidence from Germany

TL;DR: In this article , the authors examined the prevalence and the correlates of citizen support for liberal democracy and four of its deformations: a populist, a technocratic, a post-democratic, and a majoritarian-relativist conception of democracy.
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Technocracy above partisanship? Comparing the appeal of non-partisan and partisan experts as ministers – A survey in 14 countries

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI

The Populist Zeitgeist

TL;DR: In this article, a clear and new definition of populism is presented and the normal-pathology thesis is rejected; instead, it is argued that today populist discourse has become mainstream in the politics of western democracies and one can even speak of a populist Zeitgeist.
Journal ArticleDOI

What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for

TL;DR: In this article, the case study method is defined as an intensive study of a single unit with an aim to generalize across a larger set of units, and it is argued that case studies rely on the same sort of covariational evidence utilized in non-case study research.
Journal ArticleDOI

Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy

TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose an analysis of democracy in terms of two opposing faces, one "pragmatic" and the other "redemptive", and argue that it is the inescapable tension between them that makes populism a perennial possibility.
BookDOI

The Sage handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences

TL;DR: This chapter discusses the development of Hierarchical Models in Analyzing Data from Experiments and Quasi-Experiments Conducted in Field Settings, as well as the use of Bayesian Networks in Probabalistic Modeling.
Related Papers (5)
Trending Questions (1)
How does technocracy affect the relationship between ruling parties and citizens?

Technocracy influences citizens' attitudes towards ruling parties by correlating with anti-politics and pro-expertise sentiments, leading to the emergence of technopopulist citizens in Spain.