Editing Technocracy

{{Short description|Form of government ruled by experts}}
{{About|the form of government}}
{{Basic forms of government |expanded=Oligarchy}}

'''Technocracy''' is a form of [[government]] in which decision-makers appoint knowledge experts in  specific domains to provide them with advice and guidance in various areas of their policy-making responsibilities. Technocracy follows largely in the tradition of other [[meritocracy|meritocratic]] theories and works best when the state exerts strong control over social and economic issues.

This system is sometimes presented as explicitly contrasting with [[Representative Democracy|representative democracy]], the notion that elected representatives should be the primary decision-makers in government,<ref name="Berndt">{{Cite web |last=Berndt |first=Ernst R. |date=1982 |title=From technocracy to net energy analysis: engineers, economists and recurring energy theories of value |hdl=1721.1/2023|publisher=Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology|hdl-access=free|url= https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/2023/SWP-1353-09057784.pdf |series=Studies in Energy and the American Economy, discussion paper 11}}</ref> despite the fact that technocracy does not imply eliminating elected representatives. In a technocracy, decision-makers rely on individuals and institutions possessing specialized knowledge and data-based evidence rather than advisors with political affiliations or loyalty.

The term ''technocracy'' was initially used to signify the application of the [[scientific method]] to solving social problems. In its most extreme form, technocracy is an entire [[government]] running as a technical or engineering problem and is mostly [[hypothesis|hypothetical]]. In more practical use, technocracy is any portion of a [[bureaucracy]] run by [[Civic technologist|technologist]]s. A government in which elected officials appoint experts and professionals to administer individual government functions, and recommend legislation, can be considered technocratic.<ref name="BBC2011" /><ref name="minds" /> Some uses of the word refer to a form of [[meritocracy]], where the most suitable are placed in charge, ostensibly without the influence of special interest groups.<ref name="technocracy1">{{cite web | title=History and Purpose of Technocracy by Howard Scott | url=http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/History%20&%20Purpose-r.htm | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090422182206/http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/History%20%26%20Purpose-r.htm | archive-date=22 April 2009 | publisher=Technocracy.org | url-status=dead }}</ref> Critics have suggested that a "technocratic divide" challenges more participatory models of democracy, describing these divides as "efficacy gaps that persist between governing bodies employing technocratic principles and members of the general public aiming to contribute to government decision making".<ref name ="Obar">{{cite journal |last1=Obar |first1=Jonathan A. |title=Closing the Technocratic Divide? Activist Intermediaries, Digital Form Letters, and Public Involvement in FCC Policy Making |journal=International Journal of Communication |date=2016 |volume=10 |url=https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/4821/1865}}</ref>

==History of the term==
The term ''technocracy'' is derived from the Greek words τέχνη, ''tekhne'' meaning ''skill'' and κράτος, ''kratos'' meaning ''power'', as in ''governance'', or ''rule''. William Henry Smyth, a California engineer, is usually credited with inventing the word ''technocracy'' in 1919 to describe "the rule of the people made effective through the agency of their servants, the scientists and engineers", although the word had been used before on several occasions.<ref name="technocracy1"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.technocracy.org/periodicals/nwtechnocrat/237/who-is-a-technocrat.html |title=Who Is A Technocrat?&nbsp;– Wilton Ivie&nbsp;– (1953) |date=2001-03-11 |access-date=2012-05-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041230024203/http://www.technocracy.org/periodicals/nwtechnocrat/237/who-is-a-technocrat.html |archive-date=December 30, 2004 }}</ref><ref>[[Barry Jones (Australian politician)|Barry Jones]] (1995, fourth edition). ''Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work'', Oxford University Press, p. 214.</ref> Smyth used the term ''Technocracy'' in his 1919 article "'Technocracy'—Ways and Means to Gain Industrial Democracy" in the journal ''Industrial Management'' (57).<ref name="ReferenceA">Oxford English Dictionary 3rd edition (Word from 2nd edition 1989)</ref> Smyth's usage referred to [[Industrial democracy]]: a movement to integrate workers into decision-making through existing firms or revolution.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

In the 1930s, through the influence of [[Howard Scott (engineer)|Howard Scott]] and the [[technocracy movement]] he founded, the term technocracy came to mean 'government by technical decision making', using an energy metric of value. It was based on organising and directing economic activity within a geographical region nearly self-sufficient in resources and with a highly developed technology. Scott proposed that money be replaced by energy certificates denominated in units such as [[erg]]s or [[joules]], equivalent in total amount to an appropriate national [[net energy]] budget, and then distributed equally among the [[North America]]n population, according to resource availability.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technocracy|title=Technocracy - Define Technocracy at Dictionary.com|work=Dictionary.com}}</ref><ref name="Berndt"/>

There is in common usage found the derivative term ''technocrat''. The word ''technocrat'' can refer to someone exercising governmental authority because of their knowledge,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Technocracy.aspx|title=Technocracy facts, information, pictures {{!}} Encyclopedia.com articles about Technocracy|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2017-01-09}}</ref> "a member of a powerful technical elite", or "someone who advocates the supremacy of technical experts".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/11/technocrats_and_the_european_debt_crisis_what_s_a_technocrat_.html |title= What's a Technocrat?|last1= Wickman|first1= Forrest|date= November 11, 2011|website= [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|publisher= The Slate Group}}</ref><ref name="BBC2011">{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15720438|title= Who, What, Why: What can technocrats achieve that politicians can't?|date= November 14, 2011|website= [[BBC News]]|publisher= BBC|access-date=April 23, 2013}}</ref><ref name="minds">{{cite news |title=Technocrats: Minds like machines|url=http://www.economist.com/node/21538698 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=19 November 2011 |access-date=21 February 2012}}</ref> McDonnell and Valbruzzi define a prime minister or minister as a technocrat if "at the time of their appointment to government, they: have never held public office under the banner of a political party; are not a formal member of any party; and are said to possess recognized non-party political expertise which is directly relevant to the role occupied in government".<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1111/1475-6765.12054| title=Defining and classifying technocrat-led and technocratic governments| journal=European Journal of Political Research| volume=53| issue=4| pages=654–671| year=2014| last1=McDonnell| first1=Duncan| last2=Valbruzzi| first2=Marco|url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261568742}}</ref> In Russia, the [[President of Russia]] often nominates individuals with technical expertise and no prior political experience as core ministers, such appointees are termed as "technocrats".<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.ozy.com/provocateurs/life-after-putin-the-technocrats/78972 | title=If Putin Died Tomorrow, Who Would Take Over? These Technocrats Have a Chance | last=Peleschuk | first=Dan | date=14 June 2017 | publisher=Ozy}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://intersectionproject.eu/article/politics/plight-russias-technocrats | title=The plight of Russia's technocrats | date=2017-08-15 | publisher=Intersection Project | access-date=2018-01-07 | archive-date=2019-04-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425060322/http://intersectionproject.eu/article/politics/plight-russias-technocrats | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Precursors==
Before the term ''technocracy'' was coined, technocratic or quasi-technocratic ideas involving governance by technical experts were promoted by various individuals, most notably early socialist theorists such as [[Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon|Henri de Saint-Simon]]. This was expressed by the belief in state ownership over the economy, with the state's function being transformed from pure philosophical rule over men into a scientific administration of things and a direction of production processes under scientific management.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, ''Saint Simon''; ''Socialism''</ref>  According to [[Daniel Bell]]:
<blockquote>"St.-Simon's vision of industrial society, a vision of pure technocracy, was a system of planning and rational order in which society would specify its needs and organize the factors of production to achieve them."<ref name="bell">{{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=Daniel |year=2008 |title=The Coming Of Post-industrial Society |orig-year=1st. Pub. 1976 |url=https://archive.org/details/comingofpostindu00bell_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/comingofpostindu00bell_0/page/76 76] |publisher=Basic Books |access-date=2014-11-02 |isbn=978-0465097135}}</ref></blockquote> Citing the ideas of St.-Simon, Bell concludes that the "administration of things" by rational judgment is the hallmark of technocracy.<ref name="bell" />

[[Alexander Bogdanov]], a Russian scientist and social theorist, also anticipated a conception of technocratic process. Both Bogdanov's fiction and his political writings, which were highly influential, suggest that he  was concerned that a coming revolution against capitalism could lead to a technocratic society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/apr07/page10.html|title=Bogdanov, technocracy and socialism|work=worldsocialism.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926223913/http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/apr07/page10.html|archive-date=2007-09-26}}</ref><ref name="Remington (1984) Building Socialism">{{cite book |last1=Remington |first1=Thomas F. |title=Building socialism in Bolshevik Russia: ideology and industrial organization 1917-1921 |date=1984 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh press |location=Pittsburgh, Pa |isbn=0-8229-3809-X |url=https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057896064/viewer#page/1/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|114}}

From 1913 until 1922, Bogdanov immersed himself in writing a lengthy philosophical treatise of original ideas, ''Tectology: Universal Organization Science''. [[Tectology]] anticipated many basic ideas of [[systems analysis]], later explored by [[cybernetics]]. In ''Tectology'', Bogdanov proposed unifying all social, biological, and physical sciences by considering them as systems of relationships and seeking organizational principles that underlie all systems.

Arguably, the [[Plato]]nic idea of [[Philosopher king|philosopher-kings]] represents a sort of technocracy in which the state is run by those with specialist knowledge, in this case, knowledge of the Good rather than scientific knowledge.{{Citation needed|date=March 2017}} The Platonic claim is that those who best understand goodness should be empowered to lead the state, as they would lead it toward the path of happiness. Whilst knowledge of the Good differs from knowledge of science, rulers are here appointed based on a certain grasp of technical skill rather than democratic mandate.

==Characteristics==
Technocrats are individuals with technical training and occupations who perceive many important societal problems as being solvable with the applied use of [[technology]] and related applications. The administrative scientist Gunnar K. A. Njalsson theorizes that technocrats are primarily driven by their cognitive "problem-solution mindsets" and only in part by particular occupational group interests. Their activities and the increasing success of their ideas are thought to be a crucial factor behind the modern spread of technology and the largely ideological concept of the "[[information society]]". Technocrats may be distinguished from "[[Economist|econocrats]]" and "[[bureaucrat]]s" whose problem-solution mindsets differ from those of the technocrats.<ref name="Njalsson">{{Cite journal |jstor = 41802302|title = From Autonomous to Socially Conceived Technology: Toward a Causal, Intentional and Systematic Analysis of Interests and Elites in Public Technology Policy|journal = Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory|volume = 52|issue = 108|pages = 56–81|last1 = Njálsson|first1 = Gunnar K. A.|year = 2005|doi=10.3167/th.2005.5210805}}</ref>

===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. 

===Engineering===
Following Samuel Haber,<ref>Haber, Samuel. ''Efficiency and Uplift'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.</ref> Donald Stabile argues that engineers were faced with a conflict between physical efficiency and [[cost efficiency]] in the new corporate capitalist enterprises of the late nineteenth-century [[United States]]. Because of their perceptions of market demand, the profit-conscious, non-technical managers of firms where the engineers work often impose limits on the projects that engineers desire to undertake.

The prices of all inputs vary with market forces, thereby upsetting the engineer's careful calculations. As a result, the engineer loses control over projects and must continually revise plans. To maintain control over projects, the engineer must attempt to control these outside variables and transform them into constant factors.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1986.tb01899.x|title = Veblen and the Political Economy of the Engineer|journal = American Journal of Economics and Sociology|volume = 45|issue=1|pages = 41–52|year = 1986|last1 = Stabile|first1 = Donald R.}}</ref>

==Technocracy movement==
{{Main|Technocracy movement}}
The American economist and sociologist [[Thorstein Veblen]] was an early advocate of technocracy and was involved in the [[Technical Alliance]], as were [[Howard Scott (engineer)|Howard Scott]] and [[M. King Hubbert]] (the latter of whom later developed the theory of [[peak oil]]). Veblen believed technological developments would eventually lead to a socialistic reorganization of economic affairs. Veblen saw socialism as one intermediate phase in an ongoing evolutionary process in society that would be brought about by the natural decay of the business enterprise system and the rise of the engineers.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last= Wood |first= John |author-link= John Cunningham Wood
 |others= introd. Thorstein Veblen
 |title= The life of Thorstein Veblen and perspectives on his thought
 |year= 1993
 |publisher= Routledge |location= New York |isbn= 978-0-415-07487-2
 |quote= The decisive difference between Marx and Veblen lay in their respective attitudes on socialism. For while Marx regarded socialism as the ultimate goal for civilization, Veblen saw socialism as but one stage in the economic evolution of society.|page=369 }}</ref> [[Daniel Bell]] sees an affinity between Veblen and the [[Technocracy movement]].<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 41209141|title = Veblen and the New Class|journal = The American Scholar|volume = 32|issue = 4|pages = 616–638|last1 = Bell|first1 = Daniel|year = 1963}} (cited in {{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTYABAAAQBAJ| last1=Tilman| first1=Rick| title=Thorstein Veblen and His Critics, 1891-1963: Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Perspectives| date=1992|page=186| isbn=9781400862863|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ}})</ref>

In 1932, [[Howard Scott (engineer)|Howard Scott]] and [[Marion King Hubbert]] founded [[Technocracy Incorporated]] and proposed that money be replaced by energy certificates. The group argued that apolitical, rational engineers should be vested with the authority to guide an economy into a thermodynamically balanced load of production and consumption, thereby doing away with unemployment and [[debt]].<ref name="Berndt"/>

The technocracy movement was briefly popular in the US in the early 1930s during the [[Great Depression]]. By the mid-1930s, interest in the movement was declining. Some historians have attributed the decline to the rise of Roosevelt's [[New Deal]].<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-k0hgtaiCcC&pg=PA31 | title=Technocracy at Work| isbn=9780791414958| last1=Burris| first1=Beverly H.| date=1993|publisher=State University of New York Press|page=32}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLiGAAAAMAAJ |title = Technocracy and the Politics of Expertise|isbn = 9780803933798|last1 = Fischer|first1 = Frank|year = 1990|publisher=SAGE Publications|page=86}}</ref>

Historian William E. Akin rejects this conclusion. Instead, Akin argues that the movement declined in the mid-1930s due to the technocrats' failure to devise a 'viable political theory for achieving change'.<ref name="NelsonAkin">{{Cite journal |jstor = 2701484|title = Technocratic Abundance. [Reviewed Work: ''Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941.'' by William E. Akin]|journal = Reviews in American History|volume = 6|issue = 1|pages = 104–108|last1 = Nelson|first1 = Daniel|year = 1978|doi = 10.2307/2701484}}</ref> Akin postulates that many technocrats remained vocal, dissatisfied, and often sympathetic to anti-New Deal third-party efforts.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1215/00182702-10-4-682 | title=''Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941.'' By William E. Akin [book review]| journal=History of Political Economy| volume=10| issue=4| pages=682–683| year=1978| last1=McNulty| first1=P. J.}}</ref>

==Critiques==
Critics have suggested that a "technocratic divide" exists between a governing body controlled to varying extents by technocrats and members of the general public.<ref name="Obar" /> Technocratic divides are "efficacy gaps that persist between governing bodies employing technocratic principles and members of the general public aiming to contribute to government decision making."<ref name="Obar" /> Technocracy privileges the opinions and viewpoints of technical experts, exalting them into a kind of [[aristocracy]] while marginalizing the opinions and viewpoints of the general public.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=W.R. |title=Human communication as narration: Toward a philosophy of reason, value and action. |date=1987 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |location=Columbia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.2190/56FY-V5TH-2U3U-MHQK|title = Technocratic Discourse: A Primer|journal = Journal of Technical Writing and Communication|volume = 30|issue = 3|pages = 223–251|year = 2000|last1 = McKenna|first1 = Bernard J.|last2 = Graham|first2 = Philip|s2cid = 142939905|url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41035399}}</ref>

As major multinational technology corporations (e.g., [[FAANG]]) swell [[Market capitalization|market caps]] and customer counts, critiques of technocratic government in the 21st century see its manifestation in [[Politics of the United States|American politics]] not as an "authoritarian nightmare of oppression and violence" but rather as an ''[[éminence grise]]'': a democratic [[cabal]] directed by [[Mark Zuckerberg]] and the entire cohort of "[[Big Tech]]" executives.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Runciman|first=David|date=2018-05-01|title=Why replacing politicians with experts is a reckless idea|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/01/why-replacing-politicians-with-experts-is-a-reckless-idea|access-date=2020-06-13|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Blum|first=Sam|title=How All Our Tech Heroes Turned into Tech Villains|url=https://www.gq.com/story/tech-villain-era|access-date=2020-06-13|website=GQ|date=16 January 2020 |language=en-us}}</ref> In his 1982 ''[[Technology and Culture]]'' journal article, "The Technocratic Image and the Theory of Technocracy", John G. Gunnell writes: "...politics is increasingly subject to the influence of technological change", with specific reference to the advent of [[Great Moderation|The Long Boom]] and the genesis of the [[Internet]], following the [[1973–1975 recession]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Gunnell|first=John G.|date=July 1982|title=The Technocratic Image and the Theory of Technocracy|journal=Technology and Culture|volume=23|issue=3|pages=392–416|doi=10.2307/3104485|jstor=3104485|pmid=11611029|s2cid=41734855 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |author2=Peter Leyden |author1=Peter Schwartz |date=1997-07-01|title=The Long Boom: A History of the Future, 1980–2020|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/1997/07/longboom/|access-date=2020-06-13|issn=1059-1028}}</ref> Gunnel goes on to add three levels of analysis that delineate technology's political influence:

# "Political power tends to gravitate towards technological elites".
# "Technology has become autonomous" and thus impenetrable by political structures.
# "Technology (and science) constitute a new legitimizing ideology", as well as triumphing over "[[tribalism]], [[nationalism]], the crusading spirit in religion, bigotry, censorship, racism, persecution, immigration and emigration restrictions, tariffs, and [[chauvinism]]".<ref name=":0" /><ref>Boorstin, Daniel J. ''The Republic of Technology'' (New York, 1978), p. 6, 59.</ref>

In each of the three analytical levels, Gunnell foretells technology's infiltration of political processes and suggests that the entanglement of the two (i.e. technology and politics) will inevitably produce power concentrations around those with advanced technological training, namely the technocrats.<ref name=":0" /> Forty years after the publication of Gunnell's writings, technology and government have become, for better or for worse, increasingly intertwined.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jeff Bezos Says Tech Shouldn't Turn Against the Federal Government|url=https://www.govtech.com/civic/Jeff-Bezos-Says-Tech-Shouldnt-Turn-Against-the-Federal-Government.html|access-date=2020-06-13|website=www.govtech.com|date=17 October 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2020-02-23|title=Opinion {{!}} Facebook is looking a lot like a government|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/facebook-is-looking-a-lot-like-a-government/2020/02/23/2977a204-53f1-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html|access-date=2020-06-13|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Leetaru|first=Kalev|date=2018-07-20|title=Facebook As The Ultimate Government Surveillance Tool?|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/07/20/facebook-as-the-ultimate-government-surveillance-tool/|access-date=2020-06-13|website=Forbes|language=en}}</ref> [[Facebook]] can be considered a technocratic microcosm, a "technocratic nation-state" with a [[Cyberspace|cyberspatial]] population that surpasses any terrestrial nation.<ref>{{Cite web|last=LaFrance|first=Adrienne|date=2020-01-25|title=Hillary Clinton: Mark Zuckerberg Has 'Authoritarian' Views on Misinformation|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/01/hillary-clinton-mark-zuckerberg-is-trumpian-and-authoritarian/605485/|access-date=2020-06-13|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US}}</ref> In a broader sense, critics fear that the rise of social media networks (e.g. [[Twitter]], [[YouTube]], [[Instagram]], [[Pinterest]]), coupled with the "decline in mainstream engagement", imperil the "networked young citizen" to inconspicuous coercion and indoctrination by algorithmic mechanisms, and, less insidiously, to the persuasion of particular candidates based predominantly on "Social Media engagement".<ref>Brian D. Loader, Ariadne Vromen & Michael A. Xenos (2014) [https://www.dhi.ac.uk/san/waysofbeing/data/citizenship-robson-loader-2014.pdf The networked young citizen: social media, political participation and civic engagement, Information], Communication & Society, 17:2</ref><ref>Norris, P. (2002). Democratic phoenix: Reinventing democratic activism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press</ref><ref>{{Cite conference|date=2011|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-23333-3_3.pdf|title=Human Media Interaction|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|volume=6847|pages=25–35|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-23333-3_3|last1=Effing|first1=Robin|last2=Van Hillegersberg|first2=Jos|last3=Huibers|first3=Theo|conference=Electronic Participation: Third IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2011, Delft, The Netherlands, August 29 – September 1, 2011 |editor1=Efthimios Tambouris |editor2= Ann Macintosh|editor3= Hans Bruijn|chapter=Social Media and Political Participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratizing Our Political Systems? |isbn=978-3-642-23332-6|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In a 2022 article published in ''[[Boston Review]]'', political scientist Matthew Cole highlights two problems with technocracy: that it creates "unjust concentrations of power" and that the concept itself is poorly defined.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cole |first1=Matthew |title="What's Wrong with Technocracy"? |url=https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/whats-wrong-with-technocracy/ |journal=Boston Review |date=22 August 2022 |access-date=12 October 2022}}</ref> With respect to the first point, Cole argues that technocracy excludes citizens from policy-making processes while advantaging elites. With respect to the second, he argues that the value of expertise is overestimated in technocratic systems, and points to an alternative concept of "smart democracy" which enlists the knowledge of ordinary citizens.

==See also==<!-- PLEASE RESPECT ALPHABETICAL ORDER -->
*[[Algocracy]], an alternative form of government or social ordering where the usage of computer algorithms is applied to regulations, law enforcement, and generally any aspect of everyday life such as transportation or land registration
*[[Bright green environmentalism]]
*[[Continentalism]]
*[[Cyberocracy]], a hypothetical form of government that rules by the effective use of information
*[[Evidence-based policy]]
*[[Groupe X-Crise]], formed by French former students of the ''[[École Polytechnique]]'' engineer school in the 1930s
*[[Imperial examination]], an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy
*[[Noocracy]] (possible umbrella term, encompassing technocracy)
*[[Positivism]]
*[[Post-politics]]
*[[Post-scarcity economy]]
*[[Project Cybersyn]]
*[[Redressement Français]], a French technocratic movement founded by [[Ernest Mercier]] in 1925
*[[Scientific communism]]
*[[Scientism]]
*[[Scientocracy]], the practice of basing public policies on science
*[[Techno-populism]]
*[[Thermoeconomics]]
*''[[Player Piano (novel)|Player Piano]]'', [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s speculative fiction novel describing a technocratic society
*''[[The Revolt of the Masses]]'', a book by [[José Ortega y Gasset]] containing a critique of technocracy
*''[[Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt]]'', a book by Nobel Prize-winning chemist [[Frederick Soddy]] on monetary policy and society and the role of energy in economic systems

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{librivox book |stitle=Technocracy |dtitle=''Technocracy'' by William Henry Smyth | author=William Henry Smyth}}
* [https://archive.org/details/technocracyworki00smytrich William Henry Smyth, Technocracy Parts I-IV., Working Explosively, A Protest Against Mechanistic Efficiency.  Working Explosively Versus Working Efficiently.] at [[archive.org]] 
** William Henry Smyth, Technocracy Part I., Human Instincts in Reconstruction: An Analysis of Urges and Suggestions for Their Direction., [https://books.google.com/books?id=6TQ8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA89]
** William Henry Smyth, Technocracy Part II., National Industrial Management: Practical Suggestions for National Reconstruction., [https://books.google.com/books?id=6TQ8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA208]
** William Henry Smyth, Technocracy Part III., "Technocracy" - Ways and Means To Gain Industrial Democracy., [https://books.google.com/books?id=6TQ8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA385]
** William Henry Smyth, Technocracy Part IV., Skill Economics for Industrial Democracy., [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1970&dat=19200828&id=lFMiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=46YFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5966,3454 go to page 9 of 38]
* {{YouTube|id=I9ps5vJrIxM|title=Technocracy: An Alternative Social System&nbsp;– Arvid Peterson&nbsp;– (1980)}}
* Marion King Hubbert, Howard Scott, Technocracy Inc., [https://archive.org/details/TechnocracyStudyCourseUnabridged Technocracy Study Course Unabridged], New York, 1st Edition, 1934; 5th Edition, 1940, 4th printing, July 1945.
* [[Stuart Chase]], Technocracy: An Interpretation [https://archive.org/details/TechnocracyStuartChase]
* [https://archive.org/details/TechnocracyAndSocialism ''Technocracy and Socialism''], by [[Paul Blanshard]].

{{Political philosophy}}
{{Science and technology studies}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Oligarchy]]
[[Category:Politics and technology]]
[[Category:Technocracy movement]]
[[Category:Technology systems]]
[[Category:Management cybernetics]]