[en] Are policies proposed by technocrats more easily accepted by citizens than those proposed by traditional partisan actors? This is a crucial question, as politicians increasingly rely on technocrats for resolving “wicked problems” such as financial, environmental, and health crises. To answer this question, we conducted a survey experiment among 5000 Italian respondents. At the time of our experiment, Italy was governed by a “grand coalition” of various technocratic and partisan actors, enabling us to realistically vary the proponents of different policy proposals. Overall, citizens are more likely to accept policies proposed by technocrats as opposed to party leaders. In particular, we find that technocratic proponents boost policy acceptance even more for economic and valence issues. Furthermore, we find that this “technocratic effect” is generally stronger among citizens who are more likely to disagree with the policy content.
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
Vittori, Davide ; Univerisité Libre de Bruxelles, CEVIPOL, Belgium
PAULIS, Emilien ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Humanities (DHUM) > Philosophy ; Univerisité Libre de Bruxelles, CEVIPOL, Belgium
Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Univerisité Libre de Bruxelles, CEVIPOL, Belgium
Rojon, Sebastien; Univerisité Libre de Bruxelles, CEVIPOL, Belgium
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Do technocrats boost the acceptance of policy proposals among the citizenry? Evidence from a survey experiment in Italy
European Research Council European Research Council Horizon 2020 Framework Programme Horizon 2020
Funding text :
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 773023 ).This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 773023).
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