Expertocracy as thin-centered ideology: theoretical concepts and empirical illustrations

The Covid-19 pandemic and looming prospect of climate change have brought a debate on the role of expertise and scientific knowledge in policymaking to the fore. This debate informs the work of many scholars working on the dangers and promises of technocracy. Technocracy, however, is neither the only nor the most important ideology that calls for policymaking based on science, research, scholarship, and expertise. In the wake of the ongoing crisis of democratic regimes, it is the ideology of expertocracy that is most significantly gaining in influence. This paper proposes a conceptualization of expertocracy, while at the same time taking its flexible, promiscuous-by-design character into account and framing it as a thin-centered ideology that needs to be distinguished from technocracy and scientific policy advice. These concepts are then used to analyze the writings of Luisa Neubauer, a leading figure of the German branch of Fridays for Future. This case also helps us to understand why the thin-centered ideology of expertocracy is better adapted than technocracy and scientific policy advice both to the current polarization of democratic political life and to the context of looming climate change.