Bureaucrats, Experts and Technocrats, Oh My

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These three labels of people are dominant in those governing today. The people who govern are not just the people elected.

 

These types of people were put into government during World War II and were critical to winning the war. They weren’t governing prior to it. While they were once an asset, are they an asset or a liability today?

 

A person can be none, one or all of these. Here are their various definitions.

 

• Bureaucrat

  • an official who works by fixed routine without exercising intelligent judgment (dictionary.com)

  • a person who is one of the people who run a government or big company and who does everything according to the rules of that government or company (merriam-webster.com)

  • An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure. (thefreedictionary.com)

• Expert

  • a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority (dictionary.com)

  • having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience (merriam-webster.com)

• Technocrat

  • a technological expert, especially one concerned with management or administration (dictionary.com, thefreedictionary.com)

  • one exercising managerial authority (merriam-webster.com)

 

I’ll refer to these as BETs from now on.

 

The fundamental question concerning the BETs is – Are these wise choices to have in positions that govern a nation?

 

We feel that the more someone knows, the better choice they are to govern. The more they know, the smarter they are, the narrower they focus, the better they’ll be. We make a severe error when we assume that smarter and wiser are related.

 

Smarter is designing a bridge that doesn’t fall down. Wiser is understanding the human purpose of a bridge and whether one is needed or merely wanted. A BET knows how to build a bridge. One who governs must know the importance of the bridge relative to other needs.

 

A BET lives within a silo. He knows a great deal about very little. One who governs must understand interactions across silos. He must know just enough about many things.

 

A BET understands consequences within his silo. One who governs must understand consequences across silos. The COVID-19 virus process provides an opportunity to experience these.

 

The medical industry is in a proxy governing position. It’s a silo industry. It’s populated with BETs. Does that industry demonstrate governing across silos or managing within its silo? For the position we’ve put them in, are they an asset or a liability? Are they fit to govern a nation or are they only fit to diagnose patients?

 

Have we Peter Principled them? Have we elevated them to the level of their incompetence? And when, in the future, we judge them for what they’ve done, will we make them a scapegoat so as not to have to judge ourselves for what we forced upon them?

 

It’s easier to be critical of what’s through the window than what’s in the mirror.

 

Understanding the value of BETs isn’t unique to COVID-19 and the medical industry. Government is awash with them.

 

Have BETs outlived their governing usefulness? Are we coming to the point that ordinary people having a thing that seems trivial, and yet is crucial, have greater governing value than BETs? Is that thing called common sense?

 

Should the silo of BETs become obsolete in governing? Not obsolete as being a resource in government. Obsolete as being the command and control process of governing.

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Should we continue to want what we've had? Or have we arrived at a point of creative destruction - to replace something that's decreasing in value with something that will increase in it?

 

Just a fellow American