See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/259792102

The Politics of Expertise in Latin America by Miguel A. Centeno; Patricio Silva

Article  in  Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs · January 2000

DOI: 10.2307/166469

CITATIONS READS
0 47

1 author:

Anil Hira
Simon Fraser University
18 PUBLICATIONS   116 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Anil Hira on 27 September 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

University of Miami

Review
Reviewed Work(s): The Politics of Expertise in Latin America by Miguel A. Centeno and
Patricio Silva
Review by: Anil Hira
Source: Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring, 2000),
pp. 145-148
Published by: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/166469
Accessed: 19-09-2016 22:15 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

University of Miami, Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami,
Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Interamerican
Studies and World Affairs

This content downloaded from 142.58.143.184 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 22:15:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Book Reviews

Centeno, Miguel A., and Patricio Silva, eds. The Politics ofExpertise in Latin
America. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Bibliography, index,
238 pp.; hardcover $65.

The Politics of Expertise in Latin America is an important follow-up to

Benno Galjart and Patricio Silva's preceding effort, Designers of Develop-
ment: Intellectuals and Technocrats in the Third World (1995). Both
volumes consist of chapters culled from a special conference on the topic
held in Amsterdam.
The trajectory of the "technocracy" literature follows a fairly logical
plan: the early works were inspired by the rise of economists to
prominence in the wake of the neoliberal adjustment period of the 1980s.
The first pieces, such as Silva's seminal 1991 article, sought first to
document this rise; that is, to prove that technocrats are worthy targets of
study. These pieces were supplemented by a series of case studies of
technocrats in particular countries, which included the work of Kathryn
Sikkink on developmentalism in Argentina and Brazil and Centeno's work
on Mexico's economic liberalization.
The Politics of Expertise seeks to deepen this literature by moving
beyond demonstrating the reasons that we should study technocrats to
providing further information about them. Its topics include the historica
perspectives on Latin American technocracy; the sources of technocrats
neoliberal ideas; a biography of an individual pioneering technocrat; how
technocrats relate to the international economic context and international
economic actors, such as international financial institutions; additional
country case studies; a study of female technocrats in Brazil; and the threat
technocrats pose to democratic processes.
This volume both benefits and suffers from the same problems as
other conference-based edited volumes. It engages a wider variety of
interesting topics from an interesting mix of perspectives, but it leaves little
in the way of serious theoretical development. In particular, the editors'
introduction and the chapters by Schneider and Camp do contain a certain
number of interesting theoretical suggestions, however. The question of
how to define technocrats is brought up, particularly in terms of separating
technocrats from political operators. The question of whether technocrats
are independent of politicians or are instead subject, and responsive, to the

145

This content downloaded from 142.58.143.184 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 22:15:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
146 JOURNAL OF INTERAMERICAN STUDIES AND WORLD AFFAIRS 42: 1

opportunities of the world economy and local politics is an important issue

touched on throughout the volume, but addressed most clearly in the
Schneider chapter.
The editors also suggest that studies of technocracy could benefit by
looking to a cultural and economic sociology approach. This approach i
implied in the chapters that emphasize the historical context of technoc-
racy in Latin America, particularly the chapters by Baud, Silva, Conaghan,
and Camp. A third important theme is the "psychological predisposition"
of technocratic thinking and how that might relate to political legitimation.
In this particular area, the chapters by Centeno, Schneider, and Huneeu
are related. Last but not least is the issue of how technocrats actually wield
power over the policymaking process. In this respect, the van Dijck,
Montecinos, van Halsema, and Camp chapters are important.
The volume thereby lays important groundwork for moving the
technocracy project forward. The next step would be to create a theoretica
framework that could be applied to a variety of cases across regions, space,
and time. As the authors point out, the particular ideas (pro- or anti-
neoliberal) do not in and of themselves define technocrats, even though
it was the wave of market reforms that inspired this new literature. In that
sense, Silva's previous effort in Designers of Development was somewha
more satisfying. It recognized that neoliberalism was a global, no
exclusively a Latin American, phenomenon. That effort, however, requires
a much more extensive literature review. The contributors to The Politics
of Expertise refer to, but do not draw on, the other important works on
technocracy, including those in U.S. public policy, radical interpretations,
the "ideas" literature, postmodem and literary theory, networks, technol-
ogy, and rational choice perspectives. A wider project for the study of ideas
and experts would thus comprise a larger constituency and audience fo
its important issues.
The theoretical frameworks could then lend themselves to a series of
testable hypotheses. For example, Camp lists "nine broad qualities" related
to the emergence of the technocrat, such as "the increasing influence o
foreign ideologies and socializing experiences." To be truly convincing on
a theoretical level, a comparative or global project would be needed,
specifying indicators of socializing influence. These might include a broad
values survey of experts; the creation of a database of the backgrounds of
technocrats internationally; a map of the "web" of relationships between
technocrats and other political actors across time, and so on. Camp's
pioneering work on the Mexican bureaucracy demonstrates the potenti
fruitfulness of such a project.
Naturally, any theory would have to be adjusted to context. As the
authors imply, however, there are striking commonalties between Mexico'
turn-of-the-century cientfficos and the current group of neoliberal ideo-
logues. As Huneeus's chapter demonstrates, moreover, the context itse

This content downloaded from 142.58.143.184 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 22:15:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 BOOK REVIEWS 147

is evolving. Not only did Carlos Menem's position change over the cour
of his presidential campaign and subsequent election, for example, but
context of constraints and opportunities is completely different n
Argentina, considering just the advent of MERCOSUR and the wani
Menem's own popularity. Therefore, the policies that Ricardo Lago
follow in Chile will be quite distinct as a result of the "succes
neoliberalism under Pinochet, the successful democratic transition
stability under Aylwin and Frei, and the ruling of European cour
Pinochet's human rights violations.
If contingency and context are important in this volume's rich ca
studies, the substantive issues they raise are equally so. The stud
technocracy is compelling not simply from understanding how pol
actors come to operate, but how political and economic decisions
currently being made. This brings up perhaps the most important the
throughout the volume: the threat that technocracy may pose to dem
racy. As the authors, curiously, state at the close of the introduction,
belief that technocratic domination can come without blood and without
compromise is the true fatal conceit of the late twentieth century" (p. 12).
Centeno's chapter includes a telling statement about neoliberalism:
Such Darwinism neglects the obvious question of "fit for what?" In the
end, the defense of the market above all other principles requires a
leap of faith that has little if anything to do with any pretense to
knowledge. (pp. 49-50)
To which we should all reply, Amen. Actually, I would say, of course. If
we apply the same principles to "democracy," however, we end up with
the same practical problem. How are we to claim that democratic
principles of participation through occasional elections must always come
before basic issues of economic sustenance, if there are indeed tradeoffs?
The literature on "the East Asian miracle" is particularly instructive in this
regard.
To the extent that East Asia had 30-some years of uninterrupted
growth with a fair amount of equity, we must question why Latin American
and other countries blindly follow a market ideology. That East Asia is
largely undemocratic shows that democracy, the market, and economic
success or failure are not conclusively linked. One does not beget or
necessitate the other. The other blind extreme of this perspective is the
proposition that economic failures necessitate authoritarianism a la Chile
to endure the pain of macroeconomic adjustments. This argument is
buoyed by the rise and sustenance of Fujimori in Peru and Chavez more
recently in Venezuela.
These cases actually highlight the complexity of the link between
democracy and political and economic crisis. Democracies, such as the
governments of Alan Garcia or Carlos Andres Perez, may be so corrupt and
inefficient that authoritarian moves are popularly supported. Is popular

This content downloaded from 142.58.143.184 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 22:15:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 148 JOURNAL OF INTERAMERICAN STUDIES AND WORLD AFFAIRS 42: 1

support
support in those
in those
cases to
cases
be denied?
to beWith
denied?
inefficient,
Withcorrupt,
inefficient,
unrespon-corrupt, unrespon
sive,
sive,unreliable
unreliable
democratic
democratic
institutions,
institutions,
how can effective
howgovernance
can effective
be governance b
forged?
forged? TheThe
question
question
confronts
confronts
all the governments
all the governments
in the region, in the region
including
including the the
promising
promising
democratic
democratic
regimes in Argentina,
regimes Brazil,
in Argentina,
and Brazil, a
Chile.
Chile. In In
thethe
end, end,
perhaps
perhaps
the studythe
of technocracy
study of ultimately
technocracy
leads us
ultimately
to leads us
examine
examine howhow
we construct
we construct
the ideas,the
goals,ideas,
and means
goals,
to achieve
and means
what to achieve w
is
iseconomically
economicallyand politically
and politically
desirable and
desirable
feasible. and feasible.

Anil Hira
International Trade Commission

Fitch, J. Samuel. The Armed Forces and Democracy in Latin America.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Tables, figures,
bibliography, index, 264 pp.; hardcover $48, paperback $16.95.

Scholars generally hold that the armed forces must internalize norms of
subordination if they are to remain faithful servants of elected officials. The
military's support for democratic civilian control must be voluntary, and
this can be only when they have made the necessary attitudinal adjust-
ments. If they do not, then today's military compliance could evaporate
tomorrow in the face of political crises, shrinking budgets, and unattended
grievances.
To know the military mind, we must first take seriously the notion
that the officer is a thinking, feeling subject: he has his own views about
important issues, which may differ from those of others in the organization.
We must be prepared to read what he has written and listen to what he
has to say. Scholars have offered anecdotal evidence, but few have
provided systematic data that reveal patterns and trends in military thinking
across national boundaries. J. Samuel Fitch's new book does just that.
Based on 163 semistructured, open-ended interviews with retired and
active officers of all ranks in the Argentine and Ecuadoran armed forces,
it is the most thorough exposure and analysis of military political thought
in Latin America to date. Fitch gives the reader a window into military
ideology, role beliefs, and perceptions about a range of topics, including
civilian governments, policy, national security, threats, and missions.
Based on his analysis of the interview data, Fitch finds five major
belief systems, ranging from those that express a firm commitment to
democratic civilian control to those that allow for considerable military
deliberation and influence over policymaking. In Argentina, Fitch discov-
ers a solid core of officers who articulate "consistent and unambiguous
support for democratic role beliefs" (p. 70), while in Ecuador there are

This content downloaded from 142.58.143.184 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 22:15:01 UTC
View publication stats
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms