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Technocratic Policy Making and Democratic Accountability

Author: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Date: 2004
Size: 4 pages (270 KB)

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Summary

Aid donors have promoted the view that democratisation improves the quality of public policies and services. But what are the effects of technocratic styles of policy making on democratic institutions, especially in developing and transition societies? This study by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development suggests that pressure to adopt neo-liberal macro-economic policies, as countries attract international development finance, may encourage governments to insulate key institutions from public scrutiny and grant policy-making powers exclusively to experts.

Many new democracies have emerged since the late 1980s. However, democratisation is occurring at a time when the power of investors and financial institutions is changing both parameters and styles of governance. Financial globalisation, high levels of indebtedness and neo-liberal prescriptions narrow economic policy options to a limited set of objectives that emphasise fiscal restraint, privatisation and liberalisation. In order to meet these objectives, policy making is increasingly restricted to "technocrats", or those with highly technical knowledge and expertise whose decisions are unconstrained by political processes. Technocratic styles of policy making pose problems for democracies. They distort structures of accountability, making governments more answerable to multilateral agencies and investors than to representative institutions or the public at large. Such styles of policy-making also affect responses to employment and social protection, poverty eradication and conflict management.

Citizens may lose confidence in the democratic process if they believe their votes are irrelevant in decisions that affect their lives.

• If governments are to be responsive to citizens' demands, policies must be decided democratically. The role of legislative institutions in holding the executive accountable is crucial in this regard.
• But economic policies affect social groups and institutions differently.
• Central bank chiefs and ministers of finance and trade may be beholden to special interest groups.
• This may privilege strategies for inflation reduction, or financial and trade liberalisation, over those for employment generation or more inclusive social protection.
• National authorities may become more responsive to financial markets and donor agencies than to their fledgling legislatures and citizens.
• Welfare policies that are important in alleviating the costs of liberalisation and in helping countries consolidate their democracies, may be treated as residuals of macro-economic policy.

Failure to promote genuine social dialogue on issues that affect the lives of most people may encourage non-democratic means of pressing claims and de-legitimisation of representative institutions. Technocratic policy making can be moderated when:

• Political parties invest in expertise and are willing to engage the executive on the technical merits of policy.
• Parliaments establish effective mechanisms—such as specialised committees with technically qualified members—for gathering information and independently analysing policies.
• The technical knowledge of legislators, especially on economic issues, is enhanced.
• There is a high probability that the government will lose a vote of confidence if it tries to circumvent proper parliamentary scrutiny of economic policies.
• Aid dependence and indebtedness are reduced and countries reclaim their autonomy in the economic policy field.
• Citizens and civic groups are well informed about the choices governments make on their behalf and are willing to hold policy makers to account.

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Source: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2004, Technocratic Policy Making and Democratic Accountability, UNRISD Research and Policy Brief no. 3, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Switzerland
Author: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), http://www.unrisd.org