The Rise and Fall of Technocratic Populism

Technocratic populism is an understudied form of populism. It offers the ideology of the economic efficiency and technocratic solutions, regardless of the traditional political left and right. Yet, technocratic populism is not a rule by efficient technocrats, but a strategy to delegitimize traditional political parties and civil society. It is an anti-pluralist ideology that uses the pretext of technocratic expertise to rule in the name of the people. Technocratic populism is a sophisticated threat to liberal democracy because it commodifies citizens, nurtures civic apathy, and creates an opportunity for politicians to concentrate power. However, unless technocratic populists insulate themselves from accountability by manipulating the electoral system, it can collapse if the myth of expert competence is exposed. In this paper, we explore the conditions under which technocratic populism succeeds and fails. We compare the electoral success of ANO in the Czech general elections in 2017 and its failure in 2018 municipal elections. This enables us to provide novel insights into the conditions under which liberal democracy succeeds in fending off the challenge of technocratic populism.