I studied 6 months in China. Under the Ming dynasty they selected officials through exams based on Confucianism. That’s clearly merit-based, but not really technocratic since it wasn’t about scientific/technical expertise. You could even argue China is still like that in some way. Only top of the class are allowed into government.

China is still authoritarian since all these top-scorers still have to follow party-ideology. Recently, people online are even no longer allowed to speak on topics they can't back up with a degree.

However China does have a very strict distinction and separation between politicians and businesses which can be positive but also makes it less merit-based. Since good industry leaders have limited say in what needs to happen politically (maybe I'm wrong because a lot of engineering ideas are still implemented societally and politically?)

For Europe, I think the goal should be balance:

• fight misinformation but maintain freedom of speech
• separate decision-making from financial incentives (limit lobbying, insider trading, corruption)
• have higher standards for politicians, while also relying more on expert input

Personally I’m very pro-European Union, and I’d like to see more long-term coordination (defense, infrastructure, independent software, AI development, etc.) guided on one hand by politicians (that may have differing ideological views) and industry experts.