The Technic Boards

I admit to being less interested in the military manoeuvres at the climax of Poul Anderson's "The Big Rain." However, here is something that I skipped over earlier. Anyone who wants to enter the government on Venus must:

pass a series of rigid tests;
go through years of apprenticeship and of exhaustive study;
accept gradual promotions on the recommendations of seniors.

The study is of:

history;
psycho-technics (a science);
physical science.

"...in principle, thought Hollister, remembering some of the blubberheads who  still got themselves elected at home, a good idea."
-Poul Anderson, "The Big Rain" IN Anderson, The Psychotechnic League (New York, 1981), pp. 201-280 AT p. 209.

Not a  good idea. It has been suggested that a politician should have a degree in politics just as a doctor has a degree in medicine and Heinlein suggested mathematical tests for voters. Experts who either advise governments or implement government policies should have appropriate qualifications but a government itself should consist of elected and, in my opinion, recallable representatives. Every citizen should be not only informed but also able either to speak publicly or to accept the representative role for a longer or shorter period. That would require a different educational system. There is a difference between social policies, e.g., to eliminate hunger and homelessness, and technical knowledge, e.g., how to grow crops and build houses.

Hollister is surprised that the governing boards are so small, without "...an omnipresent bureaucracy." (ibid.) Then he remembers that the boards are served by electronic files and computers. Not only dictatorships but also democracies can use information technology to eliminate bureaucracy. Are there unhoused citizens in one city and empty buildings in another? The solution is simple.