Scientists and Technocratic Ideology

Abstract

Technocratic ideology, which emphasizes the need for technical experts to dominate society's leadership positions, has periodically been a subject of political and academic debate. In order to help locate the principal carriers of this ideology today, I surveyed a population of highly educated technical professionals. The most technocratic individuals in this sample had many occupational advantages, but were dissatisfied with their careers. Technocratic thought did not appear to be a managerial ideology but a form of protest most acceptable to individuals with high aspirations that had been thwarted. The rejection of technocratic thinking in this sample by those who seemed closest to policy-making suggests the slim likelihood of eventual rule by experts. A paradoxical feature of governance in the contemporary United States is its reliance on two contradictory principles: mass participation and specialized expertise. The right of all citizens to take part in government, directly or through elected representatives, is an important ideal of American society. Yet governing a technologically advanced society requires many technical specialists whose methods and activities are ordinarily invisble and incomprehensible to laymen. This paradox assures controversy over the amount of political power the society should allocate to experts. In this article, I attempt to locate the members of a community of experts who feel that persons with specialized, technical skills and training should replace society's traditional leadership, an ideology students of political thought often refer to as technocracy. The present inquiry focuses on research scientists, a class of professionals whose most eminent members often influence important governmental decisions. Technocratic beliefs are far from universal among the scientists studied here; only those with a few definite occupational characteristics embrace the ideology. Identifying the principal carriers of technocratic thought illustrates the relation between occupation