Citation

Laird FN. Ind. Crisis Q. 1990; 4(1): 49-61.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Industrial Crisis Institute - Bucknell University)

DOI

10.1177/108602669000400103

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Technocracy is problematic because it disempowers citizens. Previously, scholars worried that technocracy empowered technical elites. When that contention failed, technocracy was dismissed as not being a serious problem. But the literature was half right. The growing importance of scientific technology in public affairs does have an effect on the power relationships within society. The mistake was assuming that possession of scientific knowledge automatically enhanced power for the possessors. That error came out of a conceptual confusion about the nature of power relationships and the role of scientific knowledge within them. This paper will review that conceptual ground and reformulate the concept of technocracy. It then presents a case study in energy policy, virtually a critical case, showing the empirical validity of the reformulation of technocracy.