Abstract: It has been a gradual process for technical governance becoming part of state governance. The relevant research has expanded the conceptual variables such as “expertocracy”, “technocrate”, “scientific technology” and “micromanagement”. There are two research dimensions: one is how to govern in a “technical” way, and the other is how to apply new IT technology in governance.This paper begins with the relationship between the state and the “technical” way, a logic starting point of the concept of technical governance. Technical governance has its own autonomy in development and operation. From this perspective, we identify three basic relationship stages between the state and the technical governance.During the “absorption”stage,the state adopts the manageable technology. The technology empowers the state and at the same time the state becomes the sponsor of the technical governance. This is followed by the stage of “diffusion”, under which the state directly involves in adaptation of the technology through resource support and administrative authority. In the third stage of “diversion”, the state monitors any deviation of the technical governance through regulations and policies.This paper further puts forward two ideas of “beyond technical governance”: political imagination and market savagery. The former illuminates how policy makers transcend the limitations of technical governance in practice, and the later explains the potential research direction of technical governance in the future.In sum, this study presents an overall picture of the mutual shaping of the state and the technical governance, providing a new reflection for the research of technical governance.

Key words: technical governance, state governance, autonomy, political venation, market savagery