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You're assuming that elected officials are the only wielders of government power. But the technocratic work is done by two groups of professional analysts: civi
by gabrielroth 17y ago
You're assuming that elected officials are the only wielders of government power. But the technocratic work is done by two groups of professional analysts: civil-service employees who work for agencies like the Congressional Budget Office or the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and private-sector employees who work for the lobbying and government-affairs divisions of corporate interests. On questions requiring any technical sophistication, the elected officials base their decisions on the recommendations of those technocrats.
- xel02 17y agoYou're right in that politicians look to advisers for recommendations. However the problem of numerical illiteracy is still there. What happens if say for the problem of climate change there are two conflicting recommendations -- one from a scientist working for a lobby group, and the other from academia. Certainly the politician isn't expected to have enough knowledge to fully compare the two different reports, but a solid understanding of fundamental mathematics, statistics, and just basic physics could result in a good or bad decision. I remember as an exercise one of my physics professors asked us whether it would be possible to make up the energy deficit in British Columbia through wind turbines. Using back of the envelope calculations, basic physics, and some generous estimates we proved that it would be unlikely -- if a politician were able to do this it could very likely affect his decisions on whether other energy sources are needed.