Editing Technocracy (section)

===Examples===
The former government of the [[Soviet Union]] has been referred to as a technocracy.<ref name=Graham1993>{{Cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/ghostofexecutede00grah | url-access=registration | title=The Ghost of the Executed Engineer: Technology and the Fall of the Soviet Union| isbn=9780674354364| last1=Graham| first1=Loren R.| year=1993|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ghostofexecutede00grah/page/73 73]-74|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref> Soviet leaders like [[Leonid Brezhnev]] often had a technical background. In 1986, 89% of [[Politburo]] members were engineers.<ref name=Graham1993/>

Many previous leaders of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] had backgrounds in engineering and practical sciences. According to surveys of municipal governments of cities with a population of 1 million or more in [[China]], it has been found that over 80% of government personnel had a technical education.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1017/S0305741000013497|title = Elite Transformation and Modern Change in Mainland China and Taiwan: Empirical Data and the Theory of Technocracy|journal = The China Quarterly|volume = 121|issue = 121|pages = 1–35|year = 1990|last1 = Cheng|first1 = Li|last2 = White|first2 = Lynn|jstor=654061| s2cid=154544102 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20160301-chinese-engineering-american-law|title=Why do Chinese leaders have a degree in engineering and American leaders have degrees in law? |publisher=Gigazine|date=2016-03-01|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref> Under the [[Five-year plans of China|five-year plans]] of the People's Republic of China, projects such as the [[National Trunk Highway System]], the [[High-speed rail in China|China high-speed rail system]], and the [[Three Gorges Dam]] have been completed.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRr8GOrCLgkC |title = Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class|isbn = 9780804760775|last1 = Andreas|first1 = Joel|date = 2009|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford, CA}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2020}} During China's [[20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party|20th National Congress]], a class of technocrats in finance and economics were replaced in favor of high-expertise technocrats.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3177955/why-chinese-leader-xi-jinping-wants-more-technocrats-key-roles|title=Why Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants more technocrats in key roles|date=2022-05-17|website=South China Morning Post|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thinkchina.sg/new-breed-technocratic-elites-xi-era-countdown-20th-party-congress|title=A new breed of technocratic elites in the Xi era: Countdown to the 20th Party Congress |date=2022-09-30|newspaper=Thinkchina - Big Reads, Opinion & Columns on China|language=en}}</ref>

In 2013, a [[European Union]] library briefing on its legislative structure referred to the [[European Commission|Commission]] as a "technocratic authority", holding a "legislative monopoly" over the EU lawmaking process.<ref name="Library of European Parliament">{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/bibliotheque/briefing/2013/130619/LDM_BRI(2013)130619_REV2_EN.pdf|work=Library of the European Parliament|title=Parliament's legislative initiative|date=24 Oct 2013|access-date=24 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319173632/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/bibliotheque/briefing/2013/130619/LDM_BRI(2013)130619_REV2_EN.pdf|archive-date=19 March 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The briefing suggests that this system, which elevates the [[European Parliament]] to a vetoing and amending body, was "originally rooted in the mistrust of the political process in post-war Europe". This system is unusual since the [[European Union legislative procedure|Commission's sole right of legislative initiative]] is a power usually associated with Parliaments.

Several governments in European [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary democracies]] have been labelled 'technocratic' based on the participation of unelected experts ('technocrats') in prominent positions.<ref name=BBC2011/> Since the 1990s, Italy has had several such governments (in Italian, ''governo tecnico'') in times of economic or political crisis,<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Gundle |editor-first1=Stephen  |editor-last2=Parker |editor-first2=Simon  |year=1996 |title=The new Italian Republic: from the fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi |publisher=Routledge |orig-year=1st. Pub. 1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vL-20NZx2OQC&pg=PP1 |access-date=21 February 2012 |isbn=978-0-415-12162-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=D'Alimonte |first1=Roberto |last2=Bartolini|first2=Stefano |editor1-last=Bull |editor1-first=Martin J |editor2-last=Rhodes|editor2-first=Martin |title=In: Crisis and transition in Italian politics |publisher=Routledge |date=1997| page=226 |chapter='Electoral Transition' and party system change in Italy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ny-LuRLiipUC&pg=PA226 |isbn=978-0-7146-4366-3}}</ref> including the formation in which economist [[Mario Monti]] presided over a [[Monti Cabinet|cabinet]] of unelected [[professional]]s.<ref>{{cite news |title=Italy gets new technocrat government |author=MacKenzie, James |author2=Moody, Barry |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/italy-idUSL5E7MG0PF20111116 |newspaper=Reuters |date=16 November 2011 |access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Italy's new prime minister&nbsp;— The full Monti: Mario Monti holds out for a technocratic government until 2013 |url=http://www.economist.com/node/21538778 |newspaper=The Economist |date=19 November 2011 |access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref> The term 'technocratic' has been applied to governments where a cabinet of elected professional politicians is led by an unelected prime minister, such as in the cases of the 2011-2012 Greek government led by economist [[Lucas Papademos]] and the Czech Republic's 2009–2010 caretaker government presided over by the state's chief statistician, [[Jan Fischer (politician)|Jan Fischer]].<ref name=minds/><ref>{{cite news |title=Q&A: Greece's 'technocratic' government |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15690289 |newspaper=BBC News |date=11 November 2011 |access-date=21 February 2012}}</ref> In December 2013, in the framework of the national dialogue facilitated by the [[Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet]], political parties in [[Tunisia]] agreed to install a technocratic government led by [[Mehdi Jomaa]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Tunisia's new prime minister takes office|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/01/tunisia-new-prime-minister-takes-office-201411016745324360.html|work=AlJazeera|access-date=17 November 2015}}</ref>

The [[Syrian Salvation Government]], the predecessor to the [[Syrian caretaker government|Syrian transitional government]],<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=10 December 2024|date=10 December 2024|url=https://www.independentarabia.com/node/613575/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9/%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%83%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%89-%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3-2025|website=Independent Arabia|title=Mohammed al-Bashir officially the head of the transitional government in Syria until March 2025}}</ref> was characterized by observers as an authoritarian technocracy.<ref name=":23">{{Cite web |last=Drevon |first=Jerome |date=2020-10-27 |title=The consolidation of a (post-jihadi) technocratic state-let in Idlib |url=https://pomeps.org/the-consolidation-of-a-post-jihadi-technocratic-state-let-in-idlib |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=Project on Middle East Political Science |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":24">{{Cite book |last=Zelin |first=Aaron Y. |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/sites/default/files/pdf/PolicyFocus180MargolinZelinIndex.pdf |title=Jihadist Governance and Statecraft |date=10 July 2024 |publisher=[[The Washington Institute for Near East Policy]] |pages=18–19}}</ref><ref name=":21">{{Cite web |last=Zelin |first=Aaron Y. |date=2024-12-03 |title=The Patient Efforts Behind Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's Success in Aleppo |url=https://warontherocks.com/2024/12/the-patient-efforts-behind-hayat-tahrir-al-shams-success-in-aleppo/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=War on the Rocks |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last=Zelin |first=Aaron Y. |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/sites/default/files/pdf/PolicyFocus175Zelinv2.pdf |title=The Age of Political Jihadism: A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham |date=9 May 2022 |publisher=[[The Washington Institute for Near East Policy]] |isbn=9798985447446 |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp||page=34}}

The article "Technocrats: Minds Like Machines"<ref name=minds/> states that [[Singapore]] is perhaps the best advertisement for technocracy: the political and expert components of the governing system there seem to have merged completely. This was underlined in a 1993 article in ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' by Sandy Sandfort,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Sandfort |first=Sandy |date=1993 |title=The Intelligent Island |url=https://www.wired.com/1993/04/sandfort/ |magazine=Wired |issn=1059-1028|volume=1|issue=4 (September/October)}}</ref> where he describes the information technology system of the island highly effective even during the early days.