technocrat
noun
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In 1919 W. H. Smyth coined the term technocracy to mean basically "management of society by technical experts". Technocracy grew into a movement during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when politicians and financial institutions were being blamed for the economic disaster, and fans of technocracy claimed that letting technical experts manage the country would be a great improvement. (They also suggested that dollars could be replaced by "energy certificates" representing energy units called ergs.) Today technocrat and technocratic are still popular words for experts with a highly rational and scientific approach to public policy issues. But these experts aren't always the best politicians, and when a terrific technological solution to a problem is opposed by a powerful group or industry, lawmakers find it easier to just ignore it.
Examples of technocrat in a Sentence
TIME, 9 Mar. 2025
The Arab plan's document included a proposal for Palestinian governance through an independent committee of technocrats for six months but did not provide an immediate solution to disarming Hamas.
—Russel Honoré, Newsweek, 5 Mar. 2025
When the country started faring poorly in the war, the military pushed to continue the campaign past the point that technocrats considered feasible.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2025
Egypt has called for the formation of a governing committee of Gazan technocrats and community leaders not aligned with either Fatah or Hamas.
—Ghada Abdulfattah, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Technocrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technocrat. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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