How is “political technocracy” possible? Economic expertise and politics in China and Latin america

     Between technocrats and politicians, a hybrid group of elites, “technopols” or the “political technocrats,” has emerged on the political landscape in Latin America, orchestrating its model of economic (neo)liberalization during the past three decades. In parallel, Chinese bureaucrats have also been busy turning themselves into economic experts, and increasingly betting the legitimacy of the ruling party on the successes won through the implementation of technocratic rationality. Though interestingly similar, these two trends have rarely been scrutinized in a comparative perspective with each other. Given the increased economic linkages between the two regions and their homologous positions in the worldwide backlash against neoliberal economics and politics, such an analysis would be especially intriguing.

     This paper will address this issue and ask how political technocracy can be defined, how it is possible, and how it differs in the two contexts. It will undertake a sociological comparison of social positions, career trajectories and ideological convictions of Chinese and Latin American political technocrats in the fields of both politics and economics. Some of the differences between the two groups, I hypothesize, stem from different political configurations in authoritarian and (semi)democratic politics--essentially, what politics, both formal and informal, means in different party/state structures. In addition, different locations of the regions in the global diffusion of economic ideas, in particular in relation to Unite States’ influence, likely also contributes to the variations. Case studies on the patterns of monetary policy making in contemporary China and Latin America will complement the general sociological mapping and illustrate the conceptualization.