Technocracy and Populism in Antitrust in the US and the EU

Abstract

In recent decades we have perceived antitrust enforcement as a matter better left to technocrats. But this view is not self-evident: antitrust enforcement has only been a technocratic exercise for a short period of time; its (American) roots are much more firmly grounded in political movements than we may think. If we realise this, we may see that also technocratic antitrust enforcement is to a large extent informed by a particular political view – and that, by consequence, it can be challenged like all political views. In the last few years, a rejection of technocratic enforcement has become apparent which some – especially in the US – have described as “populist” or even “hipster” antitrust. After discussing how this came about in the US and drawing parallels in the EU, I will discuss some of its merit at the end of this paper.