Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State Kindle Edition

This a great read. Short and succint. it really offers great policy and execution ideas that i think are beneficial to usa

Very good, even if a bit heavy on Singapore.

Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State gives insights for nations, which have been disrupted by populist parties or they have the possibility to be disrupted in the future. The book gives a clear answer why some nations have failed. Nations have to be aware of political trends amongst their citizens. Majorities and minorities are not always right. Therefore, nations require balanced policies, which will not give any room for extreme policies, which can hurt them. Nations can practice real-time policies by using big data, and they should use more experts, which can generate satisfying solutions. Khanna's thesis is simple. The time of gut feeling policies is over, and it is the time of data based decision making, the rise of the Info-State. The time of real-time digital democracy is here. Khanna's book is a roadmap for nations in the 21st century.

Jukka Aminoff, Visiting Honorary Professor, Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, Author, Member of The International Advisory Board at Globalo News

Technocracy, in the words of the author (paraphrasing), is essentially utilitarianism with an optimal amount of democracy. One does not surmise this until about the 60% mark in the book - an oversimplistic definition with unclear and non-experiential cause and effect. Singapore weighed more on the utilitarianism side and Switzerland weighed more on the democratic side, are the author's two shining examples of technocracies in the world with various small EU and Asian countries possessing convex combinations of the technocracy twin characteristics. In stark contrast, America is presented as a fumbling example of an over-democratized regime - complete with governmental elites. Trumpites see this as a timely proposal, but in fact, the author points out that the Trumpian cabinet picks are exact poster boys for the poison being described - elite friends with no technical prowess in their respective potential departments (in an interview about this book). In actuality, they are worse as they are the antithesis of each.

The author assumes, in this thesis, that competent technical human beings will do just enough to uphold a democratic structure for all with some help from balancing counter-actors in the political structure while simultaneously optimizing the good of the state (usually financially). He downgrades lawyers and policy wonks as not being capable of this feat. While he lists examples of a technical approach to government, going overboard by way of historically brutal dictatorships and meritocracies, he seems to posit that a highly competent and technically minded leader will be able to be balanced by their own good-will towards a humanistic end. Alas, power corrupts absolutely when one believes they are in the existential right. Having a finite group (seven or so) presidents or high counsel leaders with meritocratic ties can still produce a potential for group-think in policy that would last until the next election cycle. In the meantime, election laws can be changed and congressional (lower level) election districts redrawn that would affect all future political structures barring an all out revolution. Technocrats have been shown to be equally capable of this deceit as are policy specialists, lawyers, clergy, military, law enforcement, and the average human activist. There are too many and numerous nebulous factors involved in societal group swaying and inceptions to label an equally nebulous label of technocracy as the next utopian (or dystopian) idea. The US Consitution remains the most mysterious of human inventions to govern a group in history. It (the founders) knew what they did not know about human behavior (a lot) and instead, under the stresses of being put to death, left it somewhat open to interpretation, extension, and contraction without a hint of automatic thinking. Singapore and Switzerland can learn from that as well.

Interesting book with some worthwhile ideas but some will be harder to imp!Amber that the book suggests. Would have liked more discussion on how solutions from city states or small countries could be applied to a country the size of the US.

Singapore author/global strategist Parag Khanna earned his PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a boutique geostrategic advisory firm, and Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum, a leading content branding agency. His focus as a global strategist is one the future of world order that he relates in his books The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order, How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance, and Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization. He is also co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization. He also has been an adviser to the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 program, and a senior geopolitical advisor to US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. His awards are many.

In a controversial Prologue Khanna readies us for change; ‘America’s 2016 presidential election exposed that its style of democracy is as much a tool of division as unity. Two years of toxic campaigning revealed deep rifts in the nation’s fabric while providing no common agenda for how to overcome them. Nearly two centuries after Alexis de Tocqueville’s ode Democracy in America, it’s time to admit that America needs less of its own version of democracy— much less. Over the past decade, Americans have become accustomed to hearing that their position in the global rankings of wealth, life expectancy, education, public safety and other metrics has slid below that of their first world peers. If this wake-up call were not enough, a 2014 Gallup survey found that Americans are not only fed up with the performance of the federal government, but also that they have lost faith in their system of government, with dissatisfaction doubling to 65 percent. The flaw is both in delivery and design. Democracy alone just isn’t good enough anymore. America today far better represents degenerative politics than good governance. Many American intellectuals celebrate the theater of politics as if it is the embodiment of Tocqueville’s praise for civic democracy. But democracy is not an end in itself. The greater goal is effective governance and improved national well-being. Because Americans no longer sense collective progress, they don’t trust their institutions anymore, whether the White House, Congress, political parties, the Supreme Court, big business, or church. These organs of American leadership are passing down to the next generation a less well functioning government and society rather than the one they need to manage a complex future… Americans are craving a better government— one that balances democracy and technocracy. Unfortunately, America today suffers from an abundance of representation and a deficit of administration. There is a great excess in the power of representatives— congressmen and senators— and deep shortfall in the power of administrators— governors and mayors. There are too many officials trained in law and not enough in policy: In other words, too much time spent arguing rather than doing something. If the same political chaos that brought the Founding Fathers together in 1787 is present today, then it is again time for a new constitutional convention.’

Khanna has studied global governments and has come to the conclusion that the ideal form of government for the complex 21st century is a "direct technocracy," one led by experts but perpetually consulting the people through a combination of democracy and data - a seven-member presidency and a restructured cabinet to replacing the Senate with an Assembly of Governors. His ideas are well developed and organized, rich in research and practical thinking. This is a book whose time has come. Grady Harp, March 17