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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   29106 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023

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See, I think this is reversed. Warren likes to adopt a professorial persona (maybe calling it a persona is unfair, given she actually has been a professor), but she is really just a lawyer (like most Members of Congress) and dresses up eat-the-rich populism in wonky clothes for the benefit of pseudointellectual liberals. Somewhat famously, she got Saez and Zucman (a pair of noted left-wing economists) to write up policy proposals for her campaign and then proceeded to ignore them when their recommendations weren't spicy enough for the audience she was courting.

Maybe we're using the world technocrat differently; to me "wants to use government policy as a tool of social engineering" isn't a distinguishing element. That could refer to almost any politician. My understanding of the term technocrat implies that they hold their position by dint of at least notional subject matter expertise. Supreme Court Justices are pretty much inherently technocrats, as is the Fed Chair. Conversely, I'm almost tempted to say an elected official can't be a technocrat, but that might be a bit too far. Nevertheless, it's rare (and even more unlikely in the specific context of Congress). It's just not how politicians win elections.

My understanding of the term technocrat implies that they hold their position by dint of at least notional subject matter expertise.

She is literally a Harvard professor?

Harvard professor of law is not a position with governmental authority (or even an advisory position) and also [insert dig at law professors here]. You could call, e.g. Larry Summer a (retired) technocrat. Not because he's an econ professor at Harvard, but because he's held governmental positions (Treasury, CEA) and was at least notionally selected for his expertise.

edit: I'm not really trying to convince you to adopt this definition of 'technocrat', just trying to lay out what I mean.

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