Neoliberalism as Political Technology: Expertise, Energy, and Democracy in Chile
Neoliberalism as Political Technology: Expertise, Energy, and Democracy in Chile
Tironi and Barandiarán examine Chilean energy policy in the context of neoliberalism, which they argue functions as a “political technology”—a form of applied knowledge that can be used in pragmatic and intentional ways to transform the state and society. To demonstrate how neoliberalism and its use as a political technology have changed over time, they examine two cases. The first is the dismantling of Chilean nuclear energy policy in the 1970s, when the Chilean government’s instantiation of the neoliberal model devalued the expertise of Chilean nuclear engineers while giving greater power to Chilean economists. The second case examines a recent hydropower generation project to argue that although current forms of neoliberalism permit multiple and noneconomic forms of expertise to contribute to environmental regulations, they do so only in ways that do not threaten the structure of the neoliberal state.
Keywords: Neoliberalism, political technology, nuclear energy, hydropower, environment, regulation, state, Chile
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