Agents or actors? Assessing the autonomy of economic technocrats in Colombia and Peru

The current theoretical debate about the heightened role of Latin American technocrats centers on their autonomy from other sociopolitical actors, especially their political superiors, international financial institutions, and business interests. Assessment of the independence técnicos wield, based on an in-depth analysis of the work of economic experts in Colombia and Peru, shows that a "technocratic autonomy" perspective best accounts for the activity of experts in these countries. Two crucial factors that explain this autonomy are technocrats use of expertise to enhance and maintain their influence and the mutual balance among powerful stakeholders who prefer technocratic independence to control of economic policy by a competing actor. I would like to thank Ralf Leiteritz, Raúl Madrid, Paula Muñoz, Maria Inés Vasquez, Kurt Weyland, the participants of the Latin American Graduate-Student Faculty Workshop at the University of Texas at Austin, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful insights on an earlier draft of this article.