Concept
Technocracy
Overview
Technocracy is an expert-based type of governance. In its strongest sense, it is a form of government in which decisions across all sectors and policy domains follow evidence-based, efficiency-oriented procedures grounded in scientific methods and instrumental rationality. In a weaker sense, the term refers to hybrid models that delegate specific functions to experts or implement expertise-driven decision procedures in areas such as central banking, public health, or environmental regulation.
Technocracy is often regarded as a challenge to democracy since it grounds political legitimacy in elite expertise, while democracy justifies itself as the rule of the people. One approach to resolving their tensions suggests that democratically elected officials choose political goals, while technocrats choose the most efficient ways to realize those goals, serving as advisors and implementers. Technocracy is closely related to meritocracy, expertocracy, epistocracy, managerialism, and algocracy. It contrasts with populism, which frames politics as a struggle between common people and a perceived elite.
Proponents of technocracy argue that scientific expertise and evidence-guided policy produce better outcomes. They hold that its value-neutral approach is best suited to promote the long-term welfare of society as a whole. Opponents contend that technocracy is anti-democratic by excluding large segments of the population from politics, that the claim to neutrality masks value-laden choices, and that science alone is insufficient for political decisions.
Early contributions to the idea of technocracy appear in the utopian visions of Plato, Francis Bacon, and Henri de Saint-Simon. The notion of science- and rationality-based governance gained prominence during the Enlightenment and became increasingly influential as industrial and post-industrial transformations made societies more complex. Notable examples of technocratic influence are found in the North American technocracy movement of the 1930s, Soviet and Chinese centralized planning, developmental efforts in Latin America and Singapore, and the institutional architecture of the European Union.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good. STRANGER: When the rich imitate the true form, such a government is called aristocracy; and when they are regardless of the laws, oligarchy. YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
Plato, Statesman
States what Technocracy is; the author is tied to Technocracy in the knowledge graph.
It was a masterpiece of human wisdom; but it was premature, and could not be permanently successful at a time when men were still governed on theological principles, and practical life still retained its military character. This separation of powers, on which the final organization of society will principally depend, is understood and valued nowhere but in the new school of philosophy, if we except the unconscious…
Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
States what Technocracy is; the author is tied to Technocracy in the knowledge graph.
The result of what has been said is, that, within the limits set by the three conditions so often adverted to, institutions and forms of government are a matter of choice. To inquire into the best form of government in the abstract (as it is called) is not a chimerical, but a highly practical employment of scientific intellect; and to introduce into any country the best institutions which, in the existing state of…
John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government
States what Technocracy is.
Philosophers who discussed Technocracy
Related ideas
- Egalitarianism
- French Revolution
- Francis Bacon
- Artificial intelligence
- Ancient philosophy
- Auguste Comte
- Elitism
- Private property
- Ancient Greek
- Industrial Revolution
- National Science Foundation
- Jürgen Habermas
- Scientism
- Modernity
- Liberalism
- Great Depression
- Max Weber
- Evidence
- Meritocracy
- Henri de Saint-Simon
- Authoritarianism
- Nationalism
- Frankfurt School
- Plato
Opposing perspectives
- Elitism
- Individual and group rights
- National identity
- Collective ownership
- Rule of law
- Socialism
- Theocracy
- Toleration
- Economic inequality
- Aristocracy
- Freedom
- State socialism
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy of science.