Technocracy 1

Technocracy

If Engineers Ruled the World

Technocracy 1. History 2. The Ideas

3. What Happened?

Forerunners of the Technocrats • Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, UK, 1627

Forerunners of the Technocrats • Saint-Simon, Du Systeme Industriel, France, 1802 `Industrial ability must replace feudal and military power; it is more important that administrators be competent than that they belong to a particular political party.’

Saint-Simon’s Three Chambers of Parliament

1. `Invention’: engineers and artists 2. `Examination’: scientists 3. `Execution’: industrialists

Prosper Enfantin, disciple of Saint-Simon

Technocracy in North America 1899: Bellamy publishes `Looking Backward’, a look ahead to the distant future (2000 AD) 1911: Taylor publishes `Principles of Scientific Management’. 1916: Gantt organises fifty engineers into `The New Machine’.

Technocracy in North America 1917: The US enters World War I 1921: Thorsten Veblen publishes `The Engineers and the Price System’. Hoover publishes the results of the Committee on the Elimination of Waste.

Technocracy in North America: 1919-1934 1919: Howard Scott, a disciple of Veblen, forms the Technical Alliance. The Alliance includes Charles Steinmetz, chief engineer of GE; Richard Tolman, later Dean of Physics at CalTech; and Veblen himself. 1921: The Alliance breaks up among accusations that Scott has mismanaged its funds. 1929: The Great Crash, followed by the Depression. 1931: Scott and Rautenstrauch form the Committee on technocracy.

Official and unofficial Technocratic publications from the 1930’s