How did they view technocracy? And how would they view a technocratic state, for example instead of the nazis or communist, technocratics took power of Germany. How would the Soviets view a technocratic Germany (which would probably like the soviets be isolated from the world). Or how would they view a technocratic USA? And what did important technocrats think of socialist/communism, that's also a question for all socialist, communist and technocrats (if they even exist) on this site.
What were the Soviets (and other Communist/Socialist states) view of Technocracy?
- Thread starter DUWANG
- Start date
That depends on your definition of "technocracy". That's a pretty broad category.
Yeah. Modern people often use "technocracy" to refer to rule by scientists or engineers, which is not necessarily untrue to the original sense but is misleading.
Originally, technocracy referred to "rational" rule by the educated and well-qualified, as opposed to those born to it, the wealthy, or whoever could win an election. Technocrats wouldn't just be physicists, but could also be social scientists and psychologists, doctors and bankers, city planners and social workers and economists, each managing their own sphere.
The Soviets would view such a state in one of two very different ways: either they would applaud Germany for instituting a new, radical form of government that threw off the chains of the past, or hey would condemn it for formalizing rule by the bourgeoisie, since there are few who better embody that class than the educated middle class.
The Soviets were of course violently opposed to the idea of technocracy within the USSR and staged the notorious trial of the "engineer-wreckers" who were accused of forming an "Industrial Party" to overthrow the Soviet regime with the help of Western interventionists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Party_Trial Basically, the CPSU's view was that the technical-scientific intelligentsia was not a separate class, and had to follow either the workers or the bourgeoisie.
American Communists were equally hostile to the Technocracy movement in the US--see V. J. Jerome's "Technocracy--A Reactionary Utopia" in the February 1933 issue of The Communist.
American Communists were equally hostile to the Technocracy movement in the US--see V. J. Jerome's "Technocracy--A Reactionary Utopia" in the February 1933 issue of The Communist.