Technocracy

Governance Rooted in Science and Expertise

Technocracy is a system of leadership where authority is in experts instead of elected politicians, despots, or traditional dynasties.

This happens when traders dominate and want to maintain their dominance.

At its core, it believes the most effective solutions come from intellectual means.

It places research at the very start of every policy.

The earliest example of a technocracy was the Song Dynasty which was highly intellectual having the following features:

• The Civil Service Exam: To get a government job, people had to pass strict, standardized tests on Confucian texts, math, and administrative theory. This meant the leaders of the country were highly educated experts.
• State-Sponsored Science: The Song government set up specialized agencies to advance technology, such as state-run armories, shipyards, and printing houses. The court gave large rewards to inventors of new weapons and tools.
• Leading Polymaths: The era was defined by technical experts. Scholars like Su Song built huge, complex mechanical astronomical water-clocks. Another scholar, Shen Kuo, improved the magnetic compass for navigation and discovered the concept of true north.
• The Four Great Inventions: While gunpowder, paper, the compass, and printing were invented or refined earlier, it was during the Song Dynasty that these tools were perfected and widely used to shape society and warfare.
• Massive Technological Leaps: The Song government issued the world’s first paper money, used movable-type printing to share knowledge, built massive ships with watertight compartments for ocean trade, and mass-produced iron and steel.

The Flaw and Collapse of Technocracy

A technocracy is short lived just as a theocracy is long lived. This is because religion is shallow while the true sciences are subtle.

The Mongols were able to conquer the technocratic Song dynasty in 74 years.

Europe solves this by having a shallow version of the true sciences as the current materialist sciences of Newton and Einstein.

The European Union is a modern technocracy. Its current decline is consistent with the principles stated here.