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is an ideological system of governance in which decision-makers are selected on the basis of their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts with the notion that elected representatives should be the primary decision-makers in government,[1] though it does not necessarily imply eliminating elected representatives. Leadership skills for decision-makers are selected on the basis of specialized knowledge and performance, rather than political affiliations or parliamentary skills.
In 2013, a European Union library briefing on its legislative structure referred to the Commission as a "technocratic authority", holding "legislative monopoly" over the EU lawmaking process despite being unelected.[21] The briefing suggests that this system, which relegates 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 unique, since the Commission's sole right of legislative initiative is a power usually associated with Parliaments.
The former government of the Soviet Union has been referred to as a technocracy.[22] Soviet leaders like Leonid Brezhnev often had a technical background in education; in 1986, 89% of Politburo members were engineers.[22]
Leaders of the Communist Party of China used to be mostly professional engineers. As a result of surveying the mayor and governor of a city with a population of 1 million or more in China, more than 80% often had a technical background in education.[23][24] The Five-year plans of the People's Republic of China have enabled them to plan ahead in a technocratic fashion to build projects such as the National Trunk Highway System, the China high-speed rail system, and the Three Gorges Dam.[25][page needed] However under Party general secretary Xi Jinping, engineers have been mostly replaced by political experts, economists and theorists; Xi himself is the only one to have an engineering degree in the current Politburo Standing Committee.[26][27]
Several governments in European parliamentary democracies have been labeled 'technocratic' based on the participation of unelected experts ('technocrats') in prominent positions.[3] Since the 1990s, Italy has had several such governments (in Italian, governo tecnico) in times of economic or political crisis,[28][29] including the formation in which economist Mario Monti presided over a cabinet of unelected professionals.[30][31] 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.[4][32] In December 2013, in the framework of the national dialogue facilitated by Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, political parties in Tunisia agreed to install a technocratic government led by Mehdi Jomaa.[33]
In the article "Technocrats: Minds Like Machines",[4] it is stated 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" by Sandy Sandfort,[34] where he describes the information technology system of the island even at that early date making it effectively intelligent.
Technocrats are individuals who firmly believe that societal problems can and must be solved using technology-focused solutions. Some of these individuals are quite extreme in their beliefs and favor a form of government, a technocracy, which would represent a scientific dictatorship. In this technocracy, the current price-based economic system would be replaced with one based upon the control of energy distribution and consumption. Such a world would be one where “Technocrats” know best and impose their esoteric idealized view of society upon the human race. Technologically based corporations and professional organizations are seen as enablers of this societal transformation.
As stated by Wood in the Introduction to the newly published book:
“My premise is that when [the Trilateral Commission] was founded in 1973, [it] quietly adopted a modified version of historic Technocracy to craft what it called a ‘New International Economic Order’. This has been largely unrecognized even to this day. With the combined weight of the most powerful global elite behind it, Technocracy has flourished in the modern world and has perhaps reached the tipping point of no return.
Social critic and academic Noam Chomsky has criticized the commission as undemocratic, pointing to its publication The Crisis of Democracy, which describes the strong popular interest in politics during the 1970s as an "excess of democracy".[15] He described it as one of the most interesting and insightful books showing the modern democratic system not to really be a democracy at all, but controlled by elites. Chomsky says that as it was an internal discussion they "let their hair down" and talked about how the public needs to be reduced to its proper state of apathy and obedience.[16]
originally posted by: cooperton
When interviewing a Penn University professor for my thesis, he informed me that more than 50% of peer-reviewed papers are flat-out wrong and based on unwarranted assumptions. Data can be manipulated to run whatever narrative you want. We have to stop treating the white coats like infallible demi-gods.
originally posted by: cooperton
When interviewing a Penn University professor for my thesis, he informed me that more than 50% of peer-reviewed papers are flat-out wrong and based on unwarranted assumptions. Data can be manipulated to run whatever narrative you want. We have to stop treating the white coats like infallible demi-gods.