Technocracy movement

The technocracy movement was a social movement active in the United States and Canada in the 1930s which favored technocracy as a system of government over representative democracy and concomitant partisan politics. Historians associate the movement with engineer Howard Scott's Technical Alliance and Technocracy Incorporated prior to the internal factionalism that dissolved the latter organization during the Second World War. Technocracy was ultimately overshadowed by other proposals for dealing with the crisis of the Great Depression.^[1] The technocracy movement proposed replacing partisan politicians and business people with scientists and engineers who had the technical expertise to manage the economy. But the movement did not fully aspire to scientocracy.^[2]

The movement was committed to abstaining from all partisan politics and communist revolution. It gained strength in the 1930s but in 1940, due to opposition to the Second World War, was banned in Canada. The ban was lifted in 1943 when it was apparent that 'Technocracy Inc. was committed to the war effort, proposing a program of total conscription.'^[3] The movement continued to expand during the remainder of the war and new sections were formed in Ontario and the Maritime Provinces.^[4]

The Technocracy movement survives into the present day and, as of 2013^[update], was continuing to publish a newsletter, maintain a website, and hold member meetings.^[5] Smaller groups included the Technical Alliance, The New Machine and the Utopian Society of America.