To Appoint or Not to Appoint Technocrat Ministers? Comparative Public Opinion Across Europe (1994-2024)

This paper aims to analyze the impact of technocrat over partisan ministers on governments’ popularity, with evidence from over 20 European countries in the last three decades (1994-2024). There is a general assumption that less partisanship provides a better "image" of the government. We thus aim to test whether this supposition is true. We identify as ‘technocrats’ those ministers who do not belong to the party or parties in the government coalition, opposed to ‘partisan’ ministers, who do belong. This study thus speaks to the literature on partisanship vs technocracy in governments, since we address whether the presence of technocrats, as opposed to partisans, in the government boosts or decreases governments’ approval. To do so the study relies on the Executive Approval Database and a unique dataset of European governments characteristics. At the end of the day, this paper aims to answer this question: are technocrats worth appointing for the government, in terms of public opinion?