Many Western commentators celebrate the theater of politics as if it were the embodiment of pure democracy. But democracy does not guarantee achievement of the higher goal of effective governance and improved national well-being. Indeed, too much politics corrupts democracy, and too much democracy gets in the way of policy. Politics is about positions, policy about decisions; democracies produce compromises, technocracies produce solutions; democracy suffices, technocracy optimizes.
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Governance is not about predictions but about decisions. Technocrats aren’t supposed to compete in prediction markets but listen to them, as well as to subject-matter experts and the public, and craft holistic policy.
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Being self-correcting is more important than being correct in any one thing.
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Meritocracy mitigates revolutionary demands because there is a sense that higher social standing and leadership are open to all based on their skills and hard work.
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Data-driven technocracy is thus superior to representative democracy alone because it captures the specific desires of the people while short-circuiting the distortions of potentially corrupted representatives and special interests.
