The Politics of Expertise in Latin America: Introduction

Abstract

From the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, technocrats are triumphant. Despite differences in the economic and political evolution of the Latin American countries during the last decades, they share one trend: an increasing number of economic and financial experts taking key positions at the highest levels of the decisionmaking process. Called by a variety of names ranging from técnicos, tecnócratas, techno-politicians to Chicago Boys or technopols, these new actors have come to dominate economic policymaking in a variety of countries since the 1960s.