“Technocrats: Minds like Machines”

The Economist argues that although technocratic governments can seem appealing in times of crisis (especially the financial crisis that is sweeping through Greece at the moment), history has proven that they tend to be inefficient and occasionally corrupt.

Unconstrained technocracy is no guarantee of good ideas or decisions. China’s engineer-kings threw their weight behind the Three Gorges dam, for example, despite the prophetic advice of some more eminent scientists. In the SARS epidemic in 2003, the technocrats were initially inept too, putting face-saving ahead of epidemiology. A rapid rollout of China’s high-speed rail network was followed in July by a slowdown after a fatal train crash: technocracy did not prevent corruption and poor quality-control.

Read the full article here.

Tagged Europe's economic crisis