1

In Asia, they already do. From Taiwan to South Korea to Singapore, doctors, engineers, and other professionals occupy the top rungs of elected office and functional agencies. In these countries, public administration is a vocation, and revolving doors between corporate and political life are minimal. Transparency is high and corruption is low. What differentiates all three Asian states—and others with ultra-low COVID-19 death rates—is they are highly technocratic.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/24/pandemic-technocrats-global-challenges/

There's this passage that says Korea is more technocratic than the United States, but it doesn't explain why there are more technocratic or skilled people in the government of Korea than in the U.S. and what are other factors that make it more technocratic than the United States.

Improve this question
4
  • 3
    That statement also says corruption is low but how many South Korean Presidents have gone to jail for corruption?
    – Joe W
    Oct 29, 2022 at 18:13
  • 1
    "There's this passage that says Korea is more technocratic than the United States" Where does it say so? The US do not seem to be mentioned at all in the quote.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Oct 29, 2022 at 18:16
  • 5
    The answer would seem to be in the quote "From Taiwan to South Korea to Singapore, doctors, engineers, and other professionals occupy the top rungs of elected office and functional agencies." This is what the article means by "technocratic". As for "why", I think we can just say "cultural differences", and leave it at that.
    – James K
    Oct 29, 2022 at 18:37
  • Ah, a revolving door between corporations and politics. That has produced so many benefits in the US. Well, for corporations, anyway. And in South Korea, arguably, for the chaebols.
    – Obie 2.0
    Oct 29, 2022 at 21:09

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

This is in part a frame challenge answer. The article says that these eastern democracies are more technocratic. It means "doctors, engineers, and other professionals occupy the top rungs of elected office and functional agencies." There is no reason to suppose that there are laws, rules or regulations that require this. It is quite possible that this is a cultural difference between these eastern democracies and western ones.

For example, in the USA many roles in the executive are given only to supporters of the President (and the office holders are expected to resign if the president loses power in an election) Moreover many roles in the states for functional positions are elected and contested in partisan elections. Together these mean that many positions in government are held by partisans and not technocrats.

Finally, note that this is just the opinion of the article's author. There's no evidence that the author has actually measured the level of technocracy in an objective way, it seems to be based more on the impressions of the author rather than a detailed analysis.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .