ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the importance of two factors in explaining the new pivotal position of technocrats: the impact of collective memories of previous democratic and authoritarian periods and the fundamental changes in Latin American political culture. It explains that the technocratization of the decision-making process is not a temporary phenomenon associated with the political and economic requirements of democratic transition and the application of structural adjustment programs but has become an integral feature of Latin American democracies. The chapter focuses on the case of Chile, where technocrats have had a central role in the decision-making process for two decades. This case also allows one to "delink" the narrow connections between structural adjustment, democratization, and technocratization because in Chile technocratic ascendancy has survived neoliberal economic reforms and even political regimes. Paul Cammack suggested that the new democracies could adapt a Schumpeterian pattern, in which political participation would be limited in the interest of rapid industrial development.
