Power without Knowledge
Metadata
- Author: Jeffrey Friedman
- ASIN: B07WSJQ9VV
- Reference: https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WSJQ9VV
- Kindle link
Highlights
“The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics,” — location: 101
A successful technocracy presupposes knowledge of a different kind, knowledge of human behavior: that is, knowledge of how to control human action effectively, hence knowledge of how to predict the outcome of manipulating it—which is what all technocratic policies do. — location: 204
Covid and nudge
since all such problems must stem, in one way or another, from dysfunctional human actions. — location: 207
Drought?
But why should we believe that—setting aside their own pretensions to scientificity—social “scientists” have the necessary knowledge? — location: 208
Replicability
A working definition of a technocracy, then, is: A polity that aims to solve, mitigate, or prevent social and economic problems among its people — location: 217
The writ of technocracy extends far beyond government spending. In fact, the main form taken by government efforts to solve, mitigate, and prevent social problems is not redistribution but regulation. — location: 246
The most controversial aspect of this book may be its attempt to meet this need by designating as “technocrats” both trained, credentialed specialists and ordinary citizens. This is merely a matter of stipulation, but as we will soon see, it can have a significant effect on how we understand the workings of technocracy in the real world—and on our normative expectations of it. — location: 270
“Well-being,” in turn, seems typically to be defined in terms that are tangible and often materialistic.33 Suffering, squalor, major inconvenience, financial insecurity, fear—conditions of somatic and psychic discomfort—are generally considered well within the purview of public policy.34 Indeed, pursuing the public interest is usually equated with solving, mitigating, or preventing problems such as these. — location: 367
Even putatively irrational instances of retrospective voting, such as the apparent reaction of New Jersey Shore voters against President Woodrow Wilson due to shark attacks in the summer of 1916,43 are readily understood as rational (if perhaps misguided) if we see voters as technocratic in orientation, but as frequently underinformed about government’s technocratic actions and capacities. — location: 412