Civil servants vary in the degree to which they hold technocratic attitudes. We explore whether bureaucrats’ exposure to politics and politicians is associated with the depoliticization dimension of the technocratic mentality. We use survey data of high-level executives in 19 European countries to explore factors that are associated with executives’ perceptions that removing issues and activities from the realms of politics leads to more farsighted policies. We find that respondents’ level of exposure to politics and politicians is indeed negatively associated with technocratic mentality. Bureaucrats have studied political science or public administration, work closer to politicians (in terms of type of organization), interact with them more frequently, and have more positive perceptions of these interactions tend to have lower levels of technocratic attitudes.

Points for practitioners

Beliefs affect behaviors and behaviors affect outcomes. Technocratic attitudes may limit the ability of civil servants to work effectively with politicians. We show that educational degrees that promote democratic values and exposure to politicians (particularly positive interactions) are associated with lower levels of technocratic attitudes. Given that a proper balance between political and technical knowledge can enhance organizational performance (Krause et al., 2006), these findings should be taken into account when staffing and structuring public organizations.

中文翻译：

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欧洲公务员中技术官僚主义思想的探索

公务员对技术专家态度的程度各不相同。我们探索官僚对政治和政治人物的了解是否与技术官僚主义思想的去政治化维度相关联。我们使用来自19个欧洲国家/地区的高管人员的调查数据来探讨与高管人员的看法有关的因素，这些看法认为，从政治领域消除问题和活动会导致更具远见的政策。我们发现，受访者对政治和政治人物的了解程度确实与技术专家的心态负相关。官僚们研究了政治学或公共管理，与政客们的关系更密切（就组织类型而言），与他们的互动更加频繁，

从业人员要点

信念影响行为，行为影响结果。技术官僚主义的态度可能会限制公务员与政客有效合作的能力。我们发现，促进民主价值观和与政治人物接触（特别是积极互动）的教育程度与较低的技术官僚态度有关。鉴于政治知识和技术知识之间的适当平衡可以提高组织绩效（Krause等，2006），在为公共组织配备人员和组织结构时应考虑这些发现。