President Trump, aided by DOGE under Elon Musk, promised deep cuts to the US federal bureaucracy. In these cases, and many others in recent history, populist politicians complain about a bloated and unelected “administrative state” that they inherit from a previous regime. They say these public employees frustrate their ability to deliver on their promises. Others argue that a bureaucracy contains the experts that are needed to make policy function smoothly – and removing them will make government function less, not more, efficiently.

So how do populists typically deal with their bureaucrats, and what are the consequences?

An analysis of Italian local politics that was published recently might help us to understand what is happening in the US now, and what might happen next. Matia Vannoni of King’s College London was one of the authors. He talks to Tim Phillips about what happens when we expel the experts.

Read Matia’s research on VoxEU (https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/expelling-experts-cost-populism-bureaucratic-expertise-and-government-performance)

Photo: Gage Skidmore

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