Technocracy may be generally described as an organizational structure in which decision makers are selected based on their specialized, technological knowledge, and/or rule according to technical processes. It has also been defined more simply as rule by experts. In all such cases technocracy constitutes a particular interaction between science, technology, and politics that has led to significant ethical debate.

Historical Development

The concept of technocracy needs to be qualified because the idea of rule by experts is at least as old as Plato's proposal for philosopher kings. Similarly, in his New Atlantis (1627), Francis Bacon envisaged an ideal society directed by scientists. But the contemporary meaning of technocracy presupposes the existence of complex industrial societies and the large-scale production and consumption processes that arose at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is only under these conditions that a class of experts in organization and production, namely engineers...