Technocracy is a management system whose philosophic root is based on Platon’s philosophy of “Government Ruled by Philosopher Kings” and Bacon’s idea of “Government by Engineers” and shaped by Saint Simon’s idea of “Managing the Society as an Industrial Organization”. While it was perceived by some camps as “an administrative system lead by some ones who have technical knowledge”, other groups argue that “technocracy is adaptation of the technical knowledge on administration”.
Technocrat is an employee who is a technical expert and able to use this specialized knowledge on the policy determination process. After the 1929 Economic Crisis the experts, economist-planning experts-financiers, employed in state-owned economic enterprises, planning offices and central banks began to participate in policy determination. After the crisis in 1970s, new administrative authorities, which are established out of the hierarchical structure of cabinet, were constituted in order to regulate and supervise the markets. As a consequence of necessitating technical knowledge, these authorities employ technical experts.
In this paper, technocratic characteristics of personnel employed in regulatory and supervisory authorities were evaluated by means of scrutinizing their establishment and empowering law. This realized in three steps. Primarily; whether the regulatory and supervisory authority has direct or indirect effect on policy making process is evaluated. Second; whether this authority has autonomy in its jurisdiction is declared. Finally; whether assistant experts and their hierarchical uppers have technocratic qualification is revealed.
Keywords: Technocracy, Technocrat, Regulatory and Supervisory Authority
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