Technocracy - is it an undeservedly condemned concept or the worst of development scenarios?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

The philosophy of technology is increasingly emphasizing the role of the technical intelligentsia in the model of today's world. Back in the middle of the last century, the concept of technocracy gained popularity among specialists, which appeared as a result of stunning progress in science.

Thorstein Veblen and his work

What is technocracy? A brief definition of this concept, implying the power of engineers, appeared and was developed in the works of Thorstein Veblen. To the greatest extent this applies to the social utopia of his authorship called "Engineers and the price system", published in 1921. In it, specialists in the field of technology and science are at the service of progress in industry and society, they are in the power to replace financiers and the highest circles of society for the common good. According to Veblen's ideas, in the 20th century the time has come for the specialists of technology to unite and take the main places in the rational control of society. At that time, one could say that technocracy is a concept that has success, and Veblen's speeches foundspecial response from Berl, Frisch and others.

The rise of the technocrat movement

In the third decade of the twentieth century in the United States, when society was undergoing an economic crisis, there was such a movement as technocracy. The definition of his program and principles were based on the idea of an ideal social mechanism, which fully corresponded to the ideas of Veblen. Technocracy adherents proclaimed the coming new age, a society in which all needs are satisfied, a society in which engineers and technicians will occupy a dominant position. They also provided for the regulation of the economic sphere without the emergence of crises, the correct distribution of resources and other issues.

The technocrat movement was gaining momentum. More than three hundred organizations emerged that dreamed of an industrial revolution and scientific planning applicable to the entire country.

Technocracy in the works of Bernheim and Galbraith

In 1941, James Bernheim, an American sociologist, published The Managerial Revolution. In it, he argued that technocracy is the real political line in several countries. He noticed that the technocratic revolution has such an impact on society that it is not socialism that replaces capitalism, but a "society of managers". Control is associated with ownership, in the absence of one there is no other. Ownership and control in the state and large corporations are separated. Bernheim believed that property should belong to the controllers, that is, managers.

In the 60s and 70s the ideaTechnocracy was developed in the works of John Kenneth Galbraith "Economic Theories and the Goals of Society" and "The New Industrial Society". Galbraith's concept is based on the concept of "technostructure", it is a social hierarchy of specialists in the technical field, it is "the bearer of collective intelligence and decisions".

The more actively the industrial society develops, the more "technostructure" becomes more and more important not only in economic matters, but also in public administration. It is for this reason that political power should be concentrated in the hands of technicians who apply knowledge and science to manage society.

Technocracy is the basis of Zbigniew Brzezinski's "technotronic society" and Daniel Bell's "post-industrial society" theory.

Technocrat Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is a sociologist and professor at Harvard representing the technocratic trend in philosophy. In the 60s, he presented the theory of post-industrial society. In it, Bell set out a vision of capitalism changing as a result of the influence of progress in science and technology, its transformation into a new system that would be different from industrial society and would be freed from its paradoxes.

Criticism of technocratic principles

The reality of the technocrats' forecasts was beyond doubt for a long time. In the second half of the twentieth century, the time has come for amazing discoveries, a growingproductivity and improved living standards in many countries. Simultaneously with the positive processes, technological progress led to the intensification of many negative phenomena that threatened human existence. Criticism of technocracy, idealized perspectives, was expressed in a selection of works of art, which also included dystopias: Utopia 14 by Karl Vonnegut, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell and others. These works serve as a threat to humanity, condemnation of the totalitarian society of technocrats, in which there is a rottenness of freedom and individuality of a person by extremely advanced science and technology.

A current look at technocracy

Today, philosophers consider the problem of technocracy as one of the most urgent. Those who condemn technocratic principles firmly believe that philosophy, armed with ethical, philosophical-legal, sociological and fundamental goals, could assure society that technocracy is an unreasonable path of development.