Technocracy, Inc.

THE TERM technocrats has been applied to government officials, usually civil servants with no specific ideological background but with expertise in their technical area, who have been raised to cabinet or other senior posts. The term implies an expert, without party affiliation, often selected to serve during an interim or transitional government. However, Technocracy, Inc., is a specific organization, founded in 1933, with branches in the United States and Canada, that has advocated the transformation of the political structure into an apolitical system using technical and scientific principles to organize society. It continues to exist in the 21st century, if only in the form of a few adherents and a website giving access to some of its literature.

The ideology of Technocracy, Inc., represents a non-Marxist critique of capitalist society. Although it resembles Marxism in that it claims to be based on a scientific analysis of society and history, Technocracy, Inc., bears more resemblance to the essentially elitist and conservative concept of a Platonic republic, governed by philosopher-kings and relying on a faith in science as the solution of social issues. With its essentially apolitical character, the literature of the organization explicitly denied any precedent in existing political ideas of either the left or right.

The organization and the philosophy derive from its founder, Howard Scott, a West Virginia-born consulting electrical engineer. A brilliant child prodigy, Scott's education as an engineer was abruptly terminated on the death of his father, who had earned a fortune in the logging business. Despite the setback, Scott made a successful career as an independent consultant. While studying national electrical problems, he developed the notion that the concepts of vector analysis and finding the optimum energy solution to complex systems problems held the key to economic prosperity.

Scott briefly toyed with the idea of forming an alliance with the remnants of the Industrial Workers of the World at the end of World War I, but after submitting a couple of articles to the union's publication, the cooperation ended. He organized a group called the Technical Alliance in 1918–19 with several other engineers, architects, and scientists, but it was dissolved in 1921.

In 1933, he revived his ideas and founded the nonprofit corporation Technocracy, Inc. The organization adopted the yin and yang symbol of a circle bisected by a serpentine curve, half chromium and half vermillion in color (which the organization defined as a “monad”). With no specific political agenda, and with no attempt to utilize labor or other existing organizations as a base, it appeared to grow very gradually through a program of inexpensively printed and distributed pamphlets mostly authored by Scott, with scattered membership discussion groups known as “chartered sections” requiring a minimum of 50 members, many in rural sections of Canada and the United States. Politicians holding elective office were declared ineligible for membership. The peculiar emblem of the organization was soon posted on rural highways across North America, found along with such Americana as Burma-Shave signs through the 1950s.

Scott's writings reflected and tapped into the popular disillusionment with the capitalist system that appeared on the verge of collapse following the stock crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. Scott argued that the natural resources and industrial capacity of the United States and Canada were more than sufficient to provide a decent living for all residents in North America.

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