Technocracy Terminology Derogatory Usage Criticism Of

The term was coined in 1919 by American engineer W.H. Smith. It came into common usage through management theorist James Burnham's 1941 work Managerial Revolution. The term became widely used to describe politics and now generally refers to an elite who governs through use of technology/technological prowess. The situation usually described is one in which the elite are selected through bureaucratic processes on the basis of specialized knowledge rather than through democratic or other processes. The term may be either positive or negative.

Howard Scott started the Technocracy movement as the "Technical Alliance" in the winter of 1918-1919. It started as a research organization that recruited scientists, architects and engineers. In 1933 it incorporated in the state of New York as a non-profit, non-political non-sectarian organization. In 1934, Howard Scott, then director-in-chief (his organizational title was "Chief Engineer"), promoted the organization and its goals with a North American lecture tour. The group remains in existence, and still recruits members.

The specific term Technocracy Incorporated applies to a movement started by Howard Scott using ideas from chemist Frederick SoddyFrederick Soddy ( September 2, 1877- September 22, 1956) was an English radiochemist. Soddy was born in Eastbourne, England, and studied at University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and Oxford University ( Merton College). He was a researcher at Oxford f and economist Thorstein VeblenAmerican economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen ( July 30, 1857 August 3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist. Educated at Carleton College, Johns Hopkins University and Yale University, his most famous work, The The. Technocracy Incorporated wanted to use full automation for full production, computers to track consumer demand, and energy credits for money. Technocracy Incorporated is opposed to the price system . The organization was established in 1933Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 See also 1933 in aviation 1933 in film 1933 in literature 1933 in mu. Their magazine The Technocrat is still published today.

A third variant of the term "technocrat" in current usage refers to individuals with technical training and occupations who tend to perceive important societal problems as technological in nature, while proposing largely technology-focused solutions to the various problems. This term is mainly used by technology policy analysts who focus their research on the power struggles and conflicts of interest present when different occupational groups compete for societal resources and authority. According to this theory, originally introduced by the administrative scientist Gunnar K. A. Njalsson, 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". This definition goes further than its predicesors in distinquishing technocrats from "econocrats" and "bureaucrats"- groups whose problem-solution mindsets differ from those of the technocrats.

2 Derogatory usage

In current usage, "technocracy" or "technocrat" often have a derogatory meaning. They allude to a form of bureaucracy where decisions are handed down by unelected officials chosen according to their real or supposed technical knowledge, for instance in the economic field. The implications are that:

the decisions lack democratic legitimacy;
the decisions are often inadequate, because they are taken remotely and do not take into account the actual parameters of the situation;
the decisions reflect the ideological biases of the technocrats.

For instance, the European CommissionThe European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities is the executive of the European Union. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU. is often criticized as a haven of technocracy.

3 Criticism of technocracy

One essential criticism of technocracy is that many governmental decisions are not technical, but political in essence. A technical decision is one that may be reached through know-how, expertise and experience, using rational arguments. A political decision is one that reflects some subjective choices, for instance regarding human values, or some choice regarding some very uncertain future.

For instance, a technocrat may follow neoclassical economicsNeoclassical economics is grouping of a number of schools of thought in economics. There is not complete agreement on what is meant by neoclassical economics—in particular, vision, problem domains, and particular concerns vary among neoclassical economist and decide that some factory is not economically efficient and thus that it should be closed. Still, closing this factory will result in a local social disaster, with many people forced out of jobs and the usual consequences. A political decision will have to take human distress into account.

Also, technocrats may focus on their particular area of expertise, whereas many governmental decisions have to approach matters from different points of views. An environment technocrat may seek to limit pollutants, while one overseeing industry may seek fewer restrictions on pollutant emissions. The problem is that each technocrat seeks to optimize efficiency in his particular field of expertise. Political arbitration then has to be brought in.

Finally, technocracy lacks popular sovereignty. Democratic governments govern in the name of the people, and the people may influence their decisions. Technocracy in its purest form is a variant on the old theme of oligarchy. Even without the assumption that popular sovereignty is good, technocracy, like all oligarchies, has tendencies to derive into a self-promoting regime that disregards the objectives that it was supposed to seek.

4 Further explanation

Technocracy, the politico-economic movement, advocates the optimization of the welfare of human beings, by means of scientific analyses and engineered action. It does not limit itself to established economic, political and administrative forms, but considers those as human artifacts subject to optimization. As a result, the group's reforms seem quite radical to many people.

Technocracy advocates an economic system in which production is run at full capacity at all times, and purchasing power equal to the productive capacity is evenly distributed to all. The organization claims that this will guarantee both well-being and security for all.

Certain long-term economic trends encourage technocratic beliefs. It is a fact that the labor content of production peaked around 1930, and is continuing to fall. At this time, less than four percent of the people of North America produce all foodstuffs, housing and manufactured goods. Every other working person performs services of some type, and most of these services could be (and are being) reduced or eliminated by better management, automation and centralization.

The result is that more than 95% of the population of North America could become a permanent leisure class, and not a poor one, either.

Technocrats argue that artificial scarcity prevents this outcome. Artificial scarcity is the common management practice of deliberately reducing production to the level at which money is available to pay for the goods. This is the " overcapacity " or post scarcity problem so frustrating to economists and managers.

In practice, a large number of people perform services, however, there are rational limits to the amount of medical, dental, personal care, banking, insurance and other services we can consume. As the arts of these services advance, we can expect to consume more services, with ever less labor content as well.

Since less than 4% of people can perform physically valuable work, this means that if people are paid only for the physical value they create, most people will become permanently impoverished by artificial scarcity.

In the real world, technocrats claim, the money system has been propped up by increasingly huge amounts of debt, which began to increase exponentiallyIn mathematics, a quantity that grows exponentially is one that grows at a rate proportional to its size. Anything that grows by the same percentage every year (or every month, day, hour etc. is growing exponentially. For example, if the average number of after 1930. This has been concealed as the national debt and mortgages. However, this system will eventually fail because of its contradictions with the real world.

Technocrats say that the rational thing is to begin to give away valuable things, and keep production running.

The concrete plans for this include such concepts as non-transferable credits (money) with an expiration date, representing a unit of consumable production. This would be supplemented by credits with longer expiration dates, redeemable for housing or machinery.

5 Technocracy and democracy

It has been argued that a constant progression to a more technocratic society is inevitable as many issues have become too complex for most people to easily grasp. Thus, as a theory of civicsCivics is the science of comparative government and means of administering public trusts the theory of governance as applied to state institutions. It is usually considered a branch of applied ethics and is certainly part of politics. Within any given pol, it may be that technocracy opposes democracy, which has as a basic assumption that almost no issues are in fact too complex for most people to grasp.

A variant of technocracy is anticipatory democracy which relies on prediction markets and other such somewhat inclusive means to find the most accurate predictors of scientific and technological trends.

6 System of governance

Technocracy can also refer to a system of governance in which laws are enforced by designing the system such that it is impossible to break them. For instance, to prevent people from riding the trolley without paying, you could simply design the trolley cars so that no one can hop on without first inserting payment into a slot which causes the door to open.

The same idea can be applied on much larger scales, with automated public surveillance by semi-intelligent systems that automatically control or limit the actions of individuals to prevent illegal activity. This is called the carceral state, in which the whole state is effectively a prison with strict rules - and all individuals are supervised to ensure compliance.

The principles of anticipatory design , wayfinding , and B. F. Skinner's vision Walden Two, to some degree echo this potential, but relying on psychology and conditioning exclusively, and not on any intrusive technology to enforce the rules.

7 See also

8 External links

In the role-playing game published by White Wolf Game Studio, the Technocracy is a group who is said to control reality through means of "application of new concepts."

Forms of government Politics and technology

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1 Terminology