Introduction

Technocratic power, rather, takes various grades, including the power of experts in advisory positions, independent ministers and prime ministers in cabinets, or entire executives. The origins of technocratic power lie, as mentioned, in the necessity for modern states to operate in the changing and ever more complex society that issued from the Industrial Revolution. Technocratic power as a continuum has important consequences for its authoritarian nature. The technocratic challenge may remain within the democratic system or, on the contrary, may transcend it, thus becoming “anti-system”. One of the main issues in determining the composition of cabinets—in turn to establish their “technocraticness”—is to decide who qualifies as a technocrat in the first place. Non-technocratic leaders and organizations can and often do hold a technocratic discourse, make technocratic statements and act technocratically. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.