ABSTRACT
To anticipate the answer to the question of 'what is technocracy' in a few, concise words, technocracy is a political regime rooted in the social and economic transformations typical of contemporary societies with a high level of economic development. The technocratic agenda saw the light with the enthusiasms, characteristic of the Enlightenment, for the power of reason, science, and technique. To be sure, most of contemporary social scientists, including harsh critics of technocracy, believe in rationality and in the contribution of science to contemporary society. Saint-Simon hastened to add that this was the future. The present, by contrast, was a reality wherein the idle still dominated over the most educated and capable individuals. Society was divided into competent professionals and parasites, or, to use the language of classical political economy, productive and unproductive labour. The literature on technocracy provides useful insights into the politics of expertise, but its limitations are manifold.
