Technocracy and demagogy

Abstract

A modern society cannot function without experts in every field and without high level specialists. Before any undertaking is initiated, an issue of effectiveness emerges, one which only they may ensure. At the same time, however, it tends to be forgotten that there is no such thing as ‘just effectiveness’; there is only effectiveness in meeting the targets adopted. Technocracy, in itself, does not issue any social objectives. On the one hand, this is in  accordance with the liberal approach, which demands the neutrality of the state; on the other hand, however, it may lead, at the very least, to dangers to democracy, to the possible collaboration of technocrats with a totalitarian government, with this group possibly resorting to populism (that is, to an unthinking subordination to the demands of the masses) and, third, to an attempt to govern on their own by demagogy, making the voice of public opinion subject to its rule.