Experts, Not Politicians: Technocratic Attitudes during COVID-19

• In Event: Populism, Technocracy and Crises

Abstract

Scholarly interest in citizen preferences for a technocratic approach to politics, which places expertise and independence over popular democratic mandates, has been on the rise in recent years. The public health crisis due to COVID19 has also catapulted questions surrounding the role and desirability of scientific expertise in politics to the forefront of public debates. Nevertheless, given the limited number of studies available to date, there are still questions regarding the stability of such attitudes and replicability of previous results. This article uses the recently developed measures of technocratic attitudes to map how the structure and prevalence of such attitudes have changed following the COVID19 pandemic in nine European countries. We also extend the study of technocratic attitudes to the US. Analyses show that the structure of technocratic attitudes remained stable, that is attitudes showing a strong preference for expertise, elitism, anti-politics and low preference for populism, and that the share of citizens that exhibit such preferences has increased in every country under study. Further, the paper asks how has the experience of a global pandemic changed citizen preferences for science and expertise in political decision-making, a key dimension of technocratic attitudes? Findings suggest that preferences for experts in politics remains high among most citizen groups, though important differences remain in the way different citizens evaluate the political response to the COVID pandemic.

Authors

• Eri Bertsou, University of St. Gallen

• Daniele Caramani, University of Zurich