Technocrats and Democratic Transition: The Cases of China and Mexico

Abstract

The rise of technocrats is one of the most salient changes that China and Mexico have experienced in the last two decades. This paper explores the following questions: Who are the technocrats? How do we explain the rise of the technocrats? What is the nature of these technocratic elites? How does expertise influence the distribution of power over policy and decision-making? What happens when experts have power? Does tactics of political control change radically with the change of the new elites? What are the roles played by the elite in the process of democratization that is transforming political institutions in Mexico and China? This paper concludes that in both Mexico and China the technocrats played an important role in economic transformations and a supporting role in the course of slow and incremental political change, but they are not the determining factor in democratic transition.