What is Technocracy?
Technocracy is the idea that people with technical and scientific knowledge should make or guide the key decisions of government. The word combines the Greek words for skill and rule. Supporters believe that many public problems, such as running an economy or a health system, have answers that can be found through careful study. In its strongest form, technocracy would replace elected politicians with experts. In milder forms, it gives experts a large role inside a democracy.
Core beliefs
- Public decisions should rest on data, evidence and expert knowledge.
- Some institutions, such as central banks, work best when protected from short-term politics.
- Science and technology are key tools for solving social problems.
- Efficiency and measurable results are important tests of good policy.
- Party conflict can get in the way of sensible solutions.
History
The French thinker Henri de Saint-Simon argued in the early nineteenth century that scientists and industrial leaders should direct society. His one-time secretary Auguste Comte developed positivism, the belief that society could be studied scientifically. In the United States, Frederick Winslow Taylor's scientific management influenced the idea that work and organizations could be engineered for efficiency. The economist Thorstein Veblen argued that engineers, not business owners, should run industry. During the Great Depression, the Committee on Technocracy was formed in New York City in 1932, and Howard Scott led the Technocracy Incorporated movement, which proposed replacing money and prices with energy accounting. According to Britannica, the movement faded because it failed to develop politically viable programs and because of fears of authoritarian social engineering.
Variants
Classic technocracy, as in the 1930s movement, wanted a full system of government by engineers. Modern technocratic thinking is more modest. It supports independent central banks, regulatory agencies, budget offices and courts that use expert judgment. Some countries have had temporary technocratic governments, where cabinets of non-party experts took office during a crisis. A related idea in political philosophy, sometimes called epistocracy, asks whether people with more knowledge should have more political power.
Criticisms
Critics who defend democracy argue that technocracy weakens the power of voters and that experts can make mistakes or serve their own interests. Critics on the left argue that technocratic economic policy has often favored austerity and markets while presenting political choices as neutral. Critics on the right argue that unelected agencies grow too powerful and that experts may ignore tradition, religion and local knowledge. Others point out that many policy questions involve values, not just facts, so expertise alone cannot settle them.
In practice
Technocratic ideas have shaped the design of modern states. Many countries made their central banks independent so that experts, rather than elected leaders, set interest rates. The European Union relies heavily on expert bodies and regulators. Italy and Greece have each had governments led by non-party experts during economic or political crises. Cost-benefit analysis, public health agencies and evidence-based policy units are all examples of technocratic tools used inside democratic systems.