Anthoula Malkopoulou
Senior lecturer
What militant democrats and technocrats share
Author
Summary, in English
In their efforts to prevent democratic backsliding, militant democrats have traditionally been sympathetic to technocratic arrangements. Does this sympathy imply a logical congruence? Comparing theories of militant democracy and epistemic technocracy (aka epistocracy), I discover a common approach to basic aspects of representative democracy. Both theories see voters as fallible or ignorant instead of capable political agents; and they both understand political parties to be channels of state rule rather than democratic expression. This shared suspicion of grassroots political agency explains why they employ non-democratic means to pursue their goals. But the two theories appear to be also analytically co-extensive. Like militant democrats, epistemic technocrats polemicize antidemocrats inasmuch as the latter are proxies for epistemically foul decision-making. Conversely, militant democrats try to block ‘incorrect’ decisions as long as these lead to democratic subversion, thereby producing a distinct type of militant technocracy. The article ends by drawing the implications of this symbiosis of epistemic and militant democratic ideas for contemporary democratic theory.
Department/s
- Department of Political Science
Publishing year
2020-06-16
Language
English
Publication/Series
Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP)
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Topic
- Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)
Keywords
- political theory
- militant democracy
- epistocracy
- conception of voters
- political parties
Status
Epub
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1369-8230