Noocracy

Basic Information

A Noocracy, or "aristocracy of the wise", as defined by Plato, is a social and political system that is "based on the priority of human mind". This differs from a geniocracy by not valuing raw intelligence, but the practical and political intelligence to steer civilization into a new golden age.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

2. Worldbuilding: 36 Types of Government (Part 2)

Game and Story Use

• In practice, this might mean that government posts will go to those who pass highest in tests that measure their intelligence quotients.
  • If the number of contenders for the next round of the tests are small and known to each other, ambitious contenders might make sure that the competition has a lower IQ during the time of the test. Getting them to drink alcohol or consume drugs, distracting them with sex, or any other diversion geniuses might come up with…
    • This might be against the rules - or it might not. After all, people who are stupid enough to fall for this probably shouldn't qualify in the first place…
• Arguably this whole system is self defeating as wise people avoid politics at all costs…
• Consider that each generation's test is likely written by the highest scorers of the previous generation. With all the trouble we have making a culture blind standardized test, the same issues would probably come up.
• A noocratic state might, for example, be run by a scribe caste who use their ability to control records and flows of information to maintain dominance - would make for an interesting bronze age republic. A modern example might be a literal bureaucracy where the civil service has simply elbowed the other arms of government out of the way … or subsumed them … leaving a state run by a self-perpetuating administrative blob.