managerista

Managerista is a term used to describe adherents of a managerialist approach to organization and governance. It refers to individuals who advocate applying corporate management methods—such as formal planning, performance metrics, process optimization, and professional administration—to business, government, and civil society institutions. The term is not widely standardized and appears mainly in critical or analytic discourse examining governance models rather than as a formal school of thought.

Derived from manager and the -ista suffix common in Romance languages, managerista is used in English-language debates in some scholarly writings and media to distinguish managerial-oriented perspectives from purely political or technocratic ones. It is typically employed descriptively but can carry pejorative connotations when critics view it as prioritizing efficiency over democratic accountability or social equity.

It is most often invoked to describe tendencies within public administration, education, health care, and non-profit sectors to organize around managerial capacity, accountability through metrics, and performance-oriented reforms. Proponents argue such practices increase efficiency, transparency, and service delivery, while critics warn they can undermine participation, legitimacy, and long-term social outcomes.

Managerista overlaps with, but remains distinct from, managerialism and technocracy. It centers the role of managers and managerial systems rather than the prerogatives of elected officials or technocratic experts. Debates about managerista thus engage questions of governance legitimacy, equity, and the balance between efficiency and democratic participation.