This lecture is part of the Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities‘ Lunch Lecture series. The lecture can be followed in person at the LUCDH Digital Lab (Huizinga building, room 0.09) or online (email lucdh@hum.leidenuniv.nl) for link).

In this talk, Ruben Ros presents his dissertation on the rise of technocratic language in Dutch parliamentary debates between 1917 and 1994. The project shows how politicians invoked expertise to frame decisions as necessary and beyond democratic contestation—revealing technocratic reasoning as a permanent, cyclical, and increasingly central feature of political debate. Alongside these findings, the talk reflects on the methodological dimension of the research: how text analysis methods such as critical search and modelling can be combined with close reading to study long-term rhetorical and conceptual change.