The technocrats’ coup

Just a few weeks ago, calling someone a ‘technocrat’ was a soft insult. The word meant, in effect, an efficient dullard. Now, technocrats appear to be inheriting the earth. They represent a new global elite, and they have recently added Greece and Italy to their empire. When Egypt’s military faced riots on the streets this week, it sought to assuage the crowds by replacing the government with a cabinet of technocrats. The Libyan rebels are doing the same. We have seen two very different types of regime change this year. The Arab Spring is driven by popular uprising; Europe has pioneered the reverse: an uprising of an unelected European elite deposing democratically elected governments. In both, technocrats seem to triumph.

The logic is that no one could possibly object to a technocrat. But if that is the case, as Dot Wordswoth points out on page 14, why have elected governments at all? If it’s all about balancing the budget and making the schools and hospitals work, then why bother with the great political circus? When Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy teamed up with the European Central Bank to form a European hit squad, the so-called Frankfurt Group, their target was troublesome elected leaders. People need stability, and a little less bunga bunga would be good for everyone. ‘National interest before politics’ has been the rationale for almost every coup d’etat in history. The problem, as Italy and Greece will find out, is that there is no such thing as politically neutral government.

Take economic recovery: how best to achieve it? Ed Balls would say by borrowing a lot more, like America. Ireland and Estonia would say by keeping taxes flat, low or both. George Osborne prefers a middle ground: creeping change and a leisurely seven-year timetable to balance the books. Each could summon facts, charts, data and quotations to make their argument; but in economics, as in so much, there is no such thing as empirical truth.