Democracy through technocracy? Reflections on technocratic assumptions in EU democracy promotion discourse

For many decades the European Union (EU) has been accused of being a ‘technocratic’ actor. But do technocratic assumptions play a part in the EU’s new ‘normative’ and ‘symbolic’ policy agendas, such as its democracy promotion policy? Some authors have suggested that ‘depoliticising’ technocratic biases do exist in the EU democracy promotion framework. Yet, such claims tend to be general in nature and provide us with little clarification as to the precise nature and role of technocratic assumptions in EU policy. This piece investigates in some detail the ways in which technocratic assumptions pepper the EU’s democracy promotion discourse. Further, it analyses the consequences of technocratic discourse for the EU: both the pragmatic benefits involved in ‘fudging’ the question of politics and ideology in democracy promotion, and the problems and paradoxes that technocratic biases give rise to by removing clear normative and political justifications from the EU democracy promotion agenda.