Some hyperbole on my part of course ... the DTPA people are presumably just self-involved and unaware of issues regarding past expressions of 'technocracy', highlighted in for example Technocracy and the American dream: the technocrat movement, 1900-1941 (University of California Press, 1977) by William Akin, Technological utopianism in American culture (Syracuse University Press, 2005) by Howard Segal, Power in the highest degree: professionals and the rise of a new mandarin order (Oxford University Press, 1990) by Charles Derber, William Schwartz & Yale Magrass and The technocrats: prophets of automation (Syracuse University Press, 1967) by Henry Elsner.
The DTPA call to action - of course on a wiki - welcomes readers to
the temporary home of the Direct-Technocratic Party of Australia. We need five hundred genuinely interested voting-age Australian residents in order to register the party.
The party's name alludes to the combination of two forms of governance: direct-democracy and the technocracy.
Technocracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy) Technocracy is a hypothetical form of government in which engineers, scientists, health professionals and other technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. The term technocracy derives from the Greek words tekhne meaning skill and kratos meaning power, as in government, or rule. Thus the term technocracy denotes a system of government where those who have knowledge, expertise or skills compose the governing body. In a technocracy decision makers would be selected based upon how highly knowledgeable they are, rather than how much political capital they hold.
Direct Democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy) Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, is a form of democracy and a theory of civics in which sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. Depending on the particular system, this assembly might pass executive motions, make laws, elect or dismiss officials, and conduct trials. Direct democracy stands in contrast to representative democracy, where sovereignty is exercised by a subset of the people, usually on the basis of election.
Put very simply, the DTPA would be a political party that features policy determined by a weighted direct democratic system. You vote on the issues you are the most knowledgeable about or which you have some stake in. As an example, consider the proposal of an internet filter. The issue would be reviewed and decided by service providers, network administrators, engineers, computer scientists and anyone that feels strongly enough about the problem to vote on it.The call is, alas, pseudonymous, so readers are not in a position to assess its authority. It could be from a 16 year old (setting up a virtual state that encompasses your bedroom is so so yesterday), one of the crustier executives in an Australian domain name registrar or someone in a university IT faculty. We might be wary about a system of governance that expressly privileges people merely on the basis of passion - "anyone that feels strongly enough about the problem to vote on it".
