Unelected bodies captured policy while media seized politics after the 1990s.

Evidence

What about the other antipode of parties—the state? Since the 1990s, there has been a split between two activities that were classically linked in the post-war era: politics and policy. “Policy” stands for the methods by which states organize their societies, such as choosing winners and losers in industrial policy. “Politics” includes the process of what political theorists call “will formation”: competition between parties, campaigning, and the forging of coalitions. … In the 1990s, these two spheres began to interact in a radically different way. Policy became the domain of unelected power—bodies such as the Eurogroup, the European Commission, or central banks, including the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, and the European Central Bank. Politics was left to a media apparatus addicted to novelty, supplemented somewhat hopefully by the internet and its participatory promises. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 146

Categorization

• XREF: Crystalizes the politics-policy split also raised in ch3’s democracy-crisis discussion; echoes the disintermediation theme. — connects to: Party politics shifted to professional experts lacking democratic backing after 1990. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 155; Party democracy’s erosion destroyed the mediating civil society that stood between citizen and state. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 150; Media shifts made politician scrutiny constant and pushed structural issues to the background — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 598 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Is this split empirically testable across countries, or mainly a framing claim about technocracy’s rise?

Broader Connections

• Media shifts made politician scrutiny constant and pushed structural issues to the background #expands (0.85) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 598
• Unintended media prioritization still wields enormous, uneven political power. #exemplifies (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1497
• The 1990s showed a global breakdown of law, order, and social solidarity #qualifies (0.72) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 900