Technocratic Bureau | 8values ​​Interpretation of ideological ideology of political testing

Explore the technocratic ideology in the 8Values ​​political orientation test. This article analyzes the ideological origins, core concepts, policy propositions and their advantages and challenges in modern social governance in detail, helping you to fully understand this political stance that emphasizes professional management and scientific decision-making. Participate in the 8Values ​​Ideological Test now, explore your political inclinations, or check out all ideological results.

8values ​​political test-Political tendency test-Political position test-Ideological test results: What is Technocratic Bureau?

Technocratic Bureau is a governance model that emphasizes the decision-making power dominated by technical experts (such as engineers, scientists, economists, etc.). Its core lies in managing social, economic and political affairs based on "technical rationality" and "maximization of efficiency". It advocates the management of social and economic affairs through professional bureaucracy and scientific and technological means, and believes that a team of specially trained experts will maximize efficiency and equity in decision-making. This model deeply integrates scientific management, professional rationality and technical means into the governance process, aiming to improve efficiency and accuracy, but may also cause new problems.

The core concepts and characteristics of technocracy

The essence of Technocratic Bureau is the governance model formed after technical rationality is embedded in the bureaucratic system . Its core logic is that it advocates that decision-making is dominated by groups that master professional knowledge and technical capabilities, and believes that "technical rationality" (such as optimal efficiency, accurate data, and rigorous model) is the optimal path to solve social problems, emphasizing that "professional authority" is higher than "political authority" or "public opinion authority".

Expert rule and decision-making subject specialization

Technological bureaucracy advocates that decision-making is led by technocrats with expertise, rather than elected representatives or public participation. The choice of decision makers is based on their technical expertise and background, which is different from the way in which universal suffrage is used in the interests of the majority in traditional democracy. In such a system, policy makers rely on individuals and institutions with expertise and data evidence rather than consultants with political background or loyalty. Technologists are individuals with technical training and career backgrounds. They believe that many important social problems can be solved through the application of technology and related methods. They are mainly driven by their cognitive "problem-solution thinking patterns".

Depoliticization tendency and rationality and objectiveness

Technologists tend to define public problems as purely technical problems, believing that there is an "optimal solution" to avoid ideological debates and conflicts of plural values. It implies that governance should transcend partisan and political differences, and pursue the neutrality of "science" and "rationality". The technocrats believe that all problems are technical problems and can be solved through technical means, based on a typical technocratic worldview that assumes that the world has internal logic and is essentially harmonious.

Efficiency priority and standardization of operating mechanisms

Efficiency is the core goal of technocracy. It emphasizes "optimal solution", "cost control" and "system stability", but may sometimes ignore social equity, democratic procedures and diversified values. The operating mechanism advocates decision-making based on data, models and empirical evidence, emphasizes process reengineering, quantitative performance assessment and standardized management, and pursues tool rationality and maximum efficiency. In the digital age, this manifests itself as a great trust in big data, algorithms and automation systems.

The integration of bureaucracy and technical authority

Technological bureaucracy not only uses the organizational power of the bureaucratic system to achieve the implementation of technical solutions, but also strengthens the "rationality" of bureaucratic decision-making through technical authority. It is different from the traditional bureaucracy, which relies on interpersonal relationships and administrative levels, while technocracy pays more attention to professional competence and data-driven decision-making.

Theoretical basis and historical origins of technocracy

The ideological foundation of technocracy can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the acceleration of industrialization and modernization, social governance has increasingly relied on professional knowledge and administrative efficiency.

The budding of early thought

Long before the term "technological bureaucracy" was coined, ideas involving the governance of technicians were proposed by people from all walks of life, the most famous of which was the early socialist theorist Henry de Saint-Simon. Saint Simon proposed to replace the aristocratic rule by "industrialists and engineers" and establish a social order dominated by "technical rationality". The industrial society he envisioned, a purely technocratic system, was a system of planning and rational order that would clarify its needs and organize the factors of production to achieve these needs.

The birth of the term "technical domination"

The word "Technocracy" comes from the Greek words "τέχνη" (tekhne, meaning skill) and "κράτος" (kratos, meaning power, governance or rule). California engineer William Henry Smyth is often considered the man who coined the term in 1919 and used to describe “making the rule of the people effective through scientists and engineers as agents of their servants.” Smith initially used it for industrial democracy, the movement in which workers integrate into decision-making through existing businesses or revolutions.

The 20th Century Technological Domination Movement and Modern Development

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the "technical domination movement" represented by Howard Scott and M. King Hubbert was briefly popular in the United States. The group advocates replacing currency with energy certificates, and non-political, rational engineers are responsible for guiding economic activities, achieving a thermodynamic balance between production and consumption, thereby eliminating unemployment and debt.

Modern technocracy represents the crystallization of rationalist ideas and actions, and is the sum of technological, economic and social revolutions that have occurred around the world in the framework of utilitarian rationalism since the commercial revolution, especially the industrial revolution.

Performance of technocracy in the 8Values ​​political orientation test

In the 8Values ​​political orientation test , technocracy usually manifests itself as a combination of dimensions:

Test dimensions Positive score describe
Equality vs. Markets Neutral to market tendency Support the combination of orderly markets and national regulation
Democracy (Authority vs. Liberty) Moderate authoritarianism Inclined to strengthen bureaucracy and technical management
Society (Tradition vs. Progress) Progressiveism Emphasize scientific and technological progress and institutional reform
Diplomacy (Nation vs. Globe) Nationalism Pay attention to national interests and security

This position emphasizes the use of professional technology and scientific decision-making to improve national governance efficiency while maintaining a certain authoritative structure to ensure execution. If you want to know your own performance in this position, please go to the 8Values ​​Political Coordinates Ideological Trends Self-test for Reassessment.

The core concepts and policy propositions of technocracy

Followers and advocates of technocracy have put forward a series of policy propositions and governance concepts aimed at achieving social progress through professionalism and rationality.

1. Professional governance priority: Strengthen expert decision-making power

Technological bureaucracy advocates that professional officials and teams of experts manage public affairs, reduce political interference and populist decision-making, and strengthen scientific and data-driven. They believe that development planning requires high levels of economic and technical expertise, so technical experts and bureaucrats play an indispensable role in the development process.

2. Administrative efficiency and standardization: building an efficient government

By improving laws, regulations and administrative processes, ensure the government to operate efficiently and avoid bureaucratic corruption and inefficiency. Efficiency is the key criterion for bureaucratic activities, and the goal of all actions is to increase efficiency or productivity, achieve economic development, or increase per capita output.

3. Science and Technology and Innovation-driven Policy: Promoting Modern Governance

Actively promote scientific and technological innovation, apply advanced technologies to economic management, social services, environmental protection and other fields, and achieve modern governance. The pace of technological development makes it revolutionary and can trigger profound economic and social changes, which technocracy welcomes because it can increase efficiency and introduce new technologies.

4. Restricting political extremism: pursuing stability and gradual reform

Technological bureaucracy opposes policy swings and disorder caused by ideological struggles, emphasizing stability and gradual reform. They believe that arguing about ideology is a waste of time, because both the left and the right ideologies lack scientific and technological foundations. In their view, governance is no longer a political issue, but a technical issue, which requires rational and precise analysis of economic and social issues and the use of existing technical expertise to make decisions.

Global Practice Cases of Technology Bureau

Technologists have many forms of practice around the world, from successful national development models to complex policy transfer challenges, to "technical empowerment" and "technical alienation" in corporate operations.

Technologists in national development and governance

  • Botswana’s successful experience : Botswana’s development model is seen as a “miracle in Africa”, which is largely attributed to its efficient and autonomous technocratic governance. The country strictly implements the elite selection system in the recruitment of civil servants, and pays attention to qualifications and experience. After independence, Botswana did not sacrifice efficiency to localize civil servants like most African countries, but chose to gradually replace foreign experts to ensure the professionalism and competence of public services. The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) plays a central role in the development of Botswana, which and its key positions have long been led by experienced technocrats.
  • "Technological Bureaucratic Authority" of the European Union (EU) : The EU's legislative structure is described as a "technological bureaucratic authority" and the European Commission has "legislative monopoly" in the EU's legislative process. Since the 1990s, there have been many "technocratic governments" with non-elected experts (i.e. technocratic bureaucracy) holding important positions in European Parliamentary democracies such as Italy during economic or political crises. For example, economist Mario Monti once led a cabinet of non-elected professionals.
  • Singapore's "Technological Bureaucratic Model" : Some people believe that Singapore is the best example of technocracy, and the political and expert components of its government system seem to be fully integrated.
  • Historical technocratic practice : Former Soviet leaders often had a technical background, and in 1986, 89% of the members of the Politburo were engineers. In the historical development of some countries, leadership has also had an engineering and practical science background.

Challenges of policy development and transnational policy transfer

  • Supervision of online intermediary services in South Korea : The Korea Fair Trade Commission proposed a bill in 2020 to regulate online intermediary services, and its key ideas draw on the EU's regulatory framework. However, the study found that policy transfers may seem convenient on the surface, but are very complex in practice, as each jurisdiction has a unique environment in both commercial and regulatory aspects. The South Korean government failed to fully consider the specific situation of its country when accelerating the legislative process, which caused the ambiguity of the bill to burden the commercial sector.
  • Bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption in Nigeria : In contrast to Botswana, public services in Nigeria have long faced challenges of corruption, inefficiency and inadequate capacity. Its bureaucracy lacks efficiency in policy formulation and implementation. The non-elite recruitment system, seniority promotion mechanism, and the abuse of the principles of "federal characteristics" and "quota system" have led to insufficient public service personnel's capabilities. In addition, technocratic tenure instability and political interventions have seriously hindered the coherence and effective implementation of policies.

Technology governance under the combination of technology and capital

  • The challenge of “Technology-Business-Bureau” : In daily life, the absurdity and powerlessness of technocracy can sometimes be surprising. For example, the experience of failure of the automatic payment system, layered transfer of customer service, and additional "one-time payment" handling fee all reflect the inconvenience and helplessness that may be caused by the combination of technology and bureaucracy. This "technology-business-bureaucracy" in people who lack time or resources can lead to the inability to bear additional costs or miss important deadlines, ultimately with more serious consequences.
  • The rise of algorithmic governance : Under platform capitalism, algorithms become "invisible technocrats", which determine information circulation, resource allocation and social behavior, and users usually have no right to participate in rulemaking.

The Challenges and Criticism of Technological Bureau

Although technocracy has potential in improving efficiency and solving complex problems, its inherent characteristics have also caused many controversies and challenges.

1. The lack of democratic legitimacy and expert autocracy

Excessive reliance on experts may ignore the will of the people, resulting in a lack of widespread recognition of governance, which in turn creates a "democratic deficit." Technical decision-making processes are often opaque and difficult for the public to understand and participate, and technical experts may not be directly responsible to the public. This makes technocracy a form of rule by a minority. Critics argue that technocracy elevates the opinions and opinions of technologists to a noble status while marginalizing the opinions and opinions of ordinary people.

2. Expert power concentration and knowledge monopoly

Decision-making power is concentrated on bureaucrats who master technology, and stakeholders in the general public or non-technical fields are excluded from the decision-making process due to their lack of "technical discourse power". This can easily form a monopoly of "technical elites", reject different voices, and exacerbate the gap between elites and the public. Technologists monopolize the discourse power of "rational" and "science" and belittle other forms of knowledge (such as local knowledge and ethical judgment).

3. Bureaucratic system rigidity and formalism

Over-standardization may weaken innovation and flexibility. Excessive pursuit of technical indicators and process compliance may lead to means deviating from their purpose. For example, in order to complete digital assessments such as "online rate" and "click rate", it ignores the actual effect of serving the people, giving rise to "intelligent bureaucracy". This "digital formalism" is manifested in the digital transformation of local governments as focusing on construction and neglecting operation and maintenance, resulting in the "zombization" of a large number of digital platforms.

4. Technical determinism risk and value rational shrinkage

Over-reliance on technology to solve all problems may ignore social complexity and humanistic factors. Technological bureaucracy highly advocates instrumental rationality (how to achieve goals efficiently), but often ignores value rationality (whether the goals themselves are legitimate and in line with human nature). It may exclude unquantifiable dimensions such as ethics, emotions, fairness and justice, leading to the dehumanization of public policies.

5. "Technological Bureaucratic Dividend" and Social Inequality

Critics have proposed the concept of a “technocratic divide”, referring to the “efficiency gap” between governance institutions that adopt technocratic principles and the public who want to participate in government decision-making. Elites controlling technology and data may form new centers of power, exacerbating the digital divide, leaving groups without technical access or knowledge further out of the governance process.

The balance between technocracy and democracy

There is a complex tension and synergy between technocracy and democracy. Waldo believes that the rationality, efficiency and technical capabilities of bureaucracy can support democracy, such as ensuring policy implementation through scientific management, but there is a conflict in the value orientation of the two: bureaucracy emphasizes hierarchical rules and professional authority, while democracy focuses on equal participation and civil rights.

To curb the negative effects of technocracy, we need to take a multi-pronged approach to promote technological democratization, strengthen institutional constraints and ethical norms, and balance the relationship between "technology" and "governance". An ideal modern governance system should pursue the balance between "instrumental rationality" and "value rationality", make good use of the strengths of technology, and adhere to human subjectivity and democratic values, so that technology can truly serve people, rather than make people surrender to technology.

Summary: A double-edged sword that coexists with efficiency and risk

Technological bureaucracy is an inevitable product of the dual trends of "technicalization" and "bureaucratization" in modern society. It is like a double-edged sword, providing a set of methods to improve governance efficiency with professional knowledge and rational tools, but if its inherent anti-democratic and devalued tendencies are not effectively checked and balanced, it may lead to a more refined and hidden bureaucratic form, and even evolve into "technical autocracy."

The core contradiction is not "technology" or "bureaucratic system" itself, but the imbalance between "technical rationality" and "social value" in the process of combining the two. Only by taking the "public interests" as the anchor point, constraining technical power through institutions, balancing the elites with democracy, and guiding the technical direction with ethics can technocracy return to the essence of "serving people's livelihood" and realize "technology-enabled governance" rather than "technology-led governance".

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