Can you provide examples of such a place? From my perspective, I find it difficult to believe that this has ever been attempted at a scale that is sufficient to come to that conclusion. I'd love to hear otherwise.
A "true" technocracy has never been, but China has exhibited the only "almost" example during the late 20th century. That was the period when they transformed from a sustenance-farming backwater to a powerhouse on the world stage.
Of course, it is always easy for a backwater to play catchup after someone else has already figured out how to advance. It is difficult to attribute that success to technocracy, and it is likely that any system could have allowed the same forward momentum, but the correlated track record is quite good regardless.
The USA flirted with the idea of technocracy around the time of the Great Depression. That is, perhaps, where the "bad record" idea has come from, but that's a pretty big leap.
