THE AMERICAN TECHNOCRACY MOVEMENT: A CASE STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

The intent of this inquiry is to provide an interpretative framework for understanding the nature and implications of the economic doctrine of the American Technocracy movement. The significance of Technocracy within the history of economic thought, in our opinion, has been addressed in a peripheral and superficial fashion. It has not been satisfactorily addressed in the literature from the perspective of the history of economic thought as viewed within the evolution of modern capitalist society. The approach must suited for this purpose is the sociology of knowledge. The specific model chosen to examine the dialectic between socio-economic reality and socio-economic thought is based on Jurgen Habermas' formulation of knowledge-guiding human interests, and the concept of legitimation. This method addresses historically the manner in which these knowledge-guiding human interests are either suppressed or given expression according to the dynamic of socio-economic conditions, determining at the same time the potential effect on human freedom. By exposing the American Technocracy movement under this light, the model proves to be of substantial heuristic value. The economic theory and ideology of Technocracy reflect the complete dominance of the technical interest at the expense of the practical and emancipatory interests in steering knowledge. All of Technocracy's articulations--philosophical, methodological, theoretical and practical, represent the guidance of social knowledge by the technical interest. This study will help clarify why at times the socio-economic problem is conceived predominantly in technocratic fashion, as principally a physical, technical, or engineering problem. The desire to suppress the practical interest and steer social knowledge strictly in accordance with the natural scientific method seems to arise during legitimation crisis. Socio-economic transformation generates political instability and thus brings into question the dominant or overarching meaning system. When uncertainty emerges concerning the validity of social norms and values--the organizing principles that function to hold society together, the whole system is threatened with chaos and there is a search for the appropriate instrumental means and values to restore order. Technocracy is an extreme example of this effort to control and manipulate that appears during the interwar period.