Let's just hope there's no shrugging.
Very interesting. How about this graphic I found?
The Union Forever: A TL
- Thread starter Mac Gregor
- Start date
Very interesting. How about this graphic I found?
Topic Profile: Technocracy
Technocracy
Flag of the Technocracy Movement
Flag of the Technocracy Movement
Despite its humble origins, technocracy would grow to govern over 1 billion people by the turn of the millennium. The following is a brief overview of its history, tenants, and current status.
tech·noc·ra·cy /tekˈnäkrəsē/ (noun): a sociopolitical philosophy where decision making powers are invested in those best qualified to better society on the basis of technical knowledge.
The birth of modern technocracy can be traced back to a single individual, Slovenian academic and engineer Jurcek Krulik (1897-1954). In his 1931 book Man and the Technocratic World, Krulik proposed that political power should rest in the hands of those best qualified to solve society’s problems, such as scientists, engineers, and doctors. Krulik explicitly rejected the rule of leaders selected by heredity or popular election and called for the creation of enlightened technocratic nations, known as technates, where learned professionals would select the best amongst their number to rule society. Krulik favored using the state’s wealth on the betterment of society by funding massive infrastructure projects, offering universal higher education, and subsidizing research and development in order to create a smarter and therefore better world. Krulik’s brand of technocracy, referred to by others as Krulikism, took a harsh stance towards religion, which Kurlik, much like Karl Marx, believed “curtailed the intellectual and productive potential of society.” Krulikism also strongly promoted eugenics which he saw as a vital step towards “genetic progress.” The growing popularity of Krulikism often made it synomnous with technocracy in general, though many political scientists maintain that there are various disciplines of technocracy of which Krulikism is only one.
In the 40 years after the publishing of Man in the Technocratic World, the technocracy movement spread and diversified. The breadth and variation of technocracy was clearly on display during the 1965 World Technocracy Congress in Buenos Aires where technocratic and Krulikist intellectuals, advocates, and politicians from 51 countries gathered. Many in the West had sought to soften the more illiberal parts of Krulik’s philosophy, and developed what is usually termed democratic technocracy or techno-democracy. Techno-democrats chose to retain and work through representative government. However, techno-democrats achieved only limited electoral success. This included Jarrod Baumgartner of the American Technocratic Party becoming the first technocratic mayor of a major city and later governor of Michigan. Even the more hardline Krulikist Association of Germany (KDG) awkwardly participated in the coalition government of Chancellor Wolf von Frej as a junior partner. Unfortunately for the techno-democrats, all of these modest electoral victories where soon vastly overshadowed by the rise of the Technate of China, the world’s first technocratic state.
Since its creation in 1972, the Technate of China has grown to become the undisputed leader of the non-democratic technocracy movement. Heng Jiang, the Technate’s founder, restructured China on a massive scale. Even religion was altered with the Directorate of Education promoting Techno-Confucianism as the official “spiritual-societal construct” which stressed order, loyalty to the government, learning, and meritocracy. China’s victory in the Asia-Pacific War (1976-1980) allowed it to establish technocratic regimes in the neighboring states of Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Assam, Bengal, Bhutan, and Sikkim. In 1984, these technates formed the Technocratic Union (TU), a supranational alliance at the command of Peking.
Under the ideology of Krulikist-Hengism, China underwent sweeping modernization. By the end of the century, China had developed nuclear weapons, cloned the first animal, built the tallest building and largest hydroelectric dam, slashed illiteracy rates, launched a space station, and recovered lost territory from Japan, Britain, and Portugal. However, these advancements came at a steep cost. China and its satellite states in the Technocratic Union are routinely criticized for their lack of political and religious freedom, reckless environmental degradation, and eugenics programs that have resulted in the abortion, sterilization, or euthanasia of millions of people. These disturbing factors and China’s swift rise as a great power have led to the current Cold War with other alliance blocs.
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Indeed it has but I would say that ours has too. Yes, France and Austria-Hungary were autocratic monarchies before and during the Great War and wished to keep democracy at bay.
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That looks like an Objectivist symbol.
Wow. That's quite a mixed batch. Progress at the expense of a lot of things.
OTL definitely saw it with fascism and soviet communism, but WWI was fairly balanced OTL (the UK and France were more democratic for their metropoles, but balanced out by Russia), so that was 2/3 big conflicts rather than all three.
Not a bad thing or anything though.
I can just see a crossover between OTL and the UFTL where objectivists and corporatists think they're allies for using such a similar system and then all heck breaks loose when they start discussing ideologies and realise they're opposites.
I seriously doubt Corporatism ever produced a book as shitty as Atlas Shrugged, though.
One of the reasons I picked atlas as a symbol of corporatism was the fact that he is a objectivist symbol in our timeline. I really liked how they are the same symbol but represent the absolute opposite.
Well, I feel that they aren't quite the total opposite; that's communism, and corporatism is more like fascism, but it is certainly ironic.
Topic Profile: Ecoism
Ecoism
A latecomer to the political scene, the variety of ideas known as ecoism promise to play an increasingly important role in the 21st century. The following is a brief overview of the history, tenants, and current status of ecoism.
ec·o·ism /ˈēkōˌizəm/ (noun): a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable democratic society.
The grouping of environmentalist and democratic policies that eventually coalesced into ecoism took decades to from. Many historians point to late 19th century progressivism such as the American E Pluribus Unum Society and early 20th century conservationists as the movements forerunners. Political scientists usually use the term ecoist as a political modifier due to the diversity of the movement. For example, the Anti-Atomic Alliance and the French Christian Ecology Party are both considered ecoist even though the former is a single-issue global organization and the latter is a big tent national political party. Ecoist groups continue to be heavily divided on economics between socialist and free market camps. Nearly all ecoist however are considered staunch advocates for democracy and human equality.
Two factors more than any other helped catapult ecoism from a fringe ideology to a worldwide movement, nuclear weapon tests and the destruction of the Asia-Pacific War (1976-1980). In 1972, the German newspaper Tagesanbruch did a series of stories over the environmental consequences of nuclear weapons tests in Cameroon sparking international outrage. Audiences around the world saw how the jungles of New Guinea and Malaya and pristine Pacific islands were obliterated during battles between the Calcutta Compact and the Allies.
In the early 1980s, ecoist influenced parties began having more success. In the United States, the Ecoist Alliance nominated Tracy Harlow for president in 1984 and managed an impressive performance for a third party candidate. In 1987, the Brazilian Ecoist Party joined a coalition government with President Flavio Brandao’s Center-Reform Party. Costa Rica became the first nation to have an openly ecoist inspired government when the Natural Front was elected in 1989.
Over the course of the 1990s, ecoist parties enjoyed substantial growth especially in Latin America, Europe, and Africa as shown when Ken Chavez was elected governor of Panama and Kiswahili Green, an ecoist leaning party alliance, gained control of the East African parliament. By the end of the millennium, ecoist bent parties and organizations were poised to continue to proliferate as concerns over nuclear weapons, deforestation, pollution, and global warming garnered mainstream attention.
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I hope the ecoists are more reasonable here than the ultra radical environmentalists of our timeline
About so plausible as Communist/Socialist POTUS in OTL. So very implausible. This party system seems so established that I don't think that there is much chances for third party president.