The Politics of Expertise in Latin America: Antecedents and Actualities

• Autor(a) principal: WHITEHEAD,LAURENCE
• Data de Publicação: 2000
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Economia Política
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-31572000000200212
• topic: Technocracy; specialization; election

ABSTRACT All public activities are in some broad measure political, and all require certain specialised skills, which may be termed “expertise”. But over time and space the realm of the specifically “political” may either expand or contract. Equally, what counts as expertise, and how much autonomy it will be granted, also varies over time and space. Horsemanship, literacy, oratory, textual exegesis, and an understanding of global financial derivatives have each been regarded as the hallmark of the modern expert in one setting or another. The relationship between the “generalist” politician and the “specialist” expert is one of the most ancient and recurring themes in political science. Effective and durable rule requires the enlistment of a range of competences, yet government is not reducible to technique. How then are the rulers to be guided by their advisers without being usurped by them?