Central bank technocracy was framed as superior to democratic control precisely in democratic ages

Evidence

Hawtrey was adamant that it was precisely in a “democratic age” that technocratic exemption from democracy was “an advantage.” One had to escape “ill judged pressure at critical times,” and especially any opposition to defl ation on the part of workers and business. Indeed, until “a healthy public opinion could ever be evolved on the subject of credit control”— and Hawtrey declared himself agnostic on whether it would ever be possible— “the welfare of the community” depended “vitally upon the technical effi ciency and enlightenment of those who administer the great central banks of the world” (ibid., 244). … Th e eliteness of scientifi c knowledge thus became the means to justify the undemocratic nature of an institution with immense social power and impact on everyone’s lives. Hawtrey’s innocent parallel between the workings of the central banks— which he admitted would “intimately [aff ect] the entire economic life of the country”— and the colonial offi ce governing a colony betrays the fundamental antidemocratic or even repressive content of the austerity project. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1013

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to modern ‘independent central banks’ and their anti-democratic critique — echoes of the technocracy-vs-democracy tension in modern neoliberalism. — connects to: Central-bank independence was designed to insulate price stability from democratic pressure. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 422; Central bank independence shifted economic decision-making beyond electoral reach — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 421; Independent central banks originated as a way to dodge democratic pressure. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 374 (+7 more)
• SEED: The explicit comparison of central banking to colonial administration is a powerful essay angle: technocratic governance as internal colonialism.

Broader Connections

• Central bank independence was formalized to exempt economic policy from democratic control #expands (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 71
• Ordoliberalism institutionalized competition policy and an independent central bank against parliamentary control #exemplifies (0.90) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 364
• Expert bureaucracy came to control democratic regimes and parliaments #expands (0.88)
• Expertise-based bureaucracies enable capitalist control over democratic regimes #expands (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 331
• “Controlled disintegration” was an explicit central-bank strategy, not an accident #corroborates (0.78) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 213