McNamara/Speer

Robert McNamara -- US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War

Albert Speer -- Armaments Minister under Hitler during the Second World War;

These two men were, on the one hand, embodiments of the Master Technocrat; on the other hand, architects of futility and atrocity.

This website is dedicated to the study of the contradictions and paradoxes that underlie the modern Technocracy and its chief personality, the Technocrat.

Much, though not all, of the material here, conducts such an examination by looking at its two leading archetypes, "Mac" and "Speer" (hence the name "Macspeer").  

Some of the materials presented here are analytical, academic, and historical.  Others are artistic, creative and fanciful.  All of it is dedicated to investigating the nature of Technocracy in its historical and contemporary forms.  

TECHNOCRACY

Encyclopedia 2025, 5(4), 194; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia5040194

(This article belongs to the Collection Encyclopedia of Social Sciences)

Technocracy refers to any political–social–economic system that is governed and managed using purportedly objective scientific and technical principles, and in which ultimate power and authority rests with technical and scientific experts. The concept had its initial origins in the early decades of the Industrial Revolution (with antecedents stretching back to the rationalism of ancient Greece and, later, the Enlightenment in the West). Technocracy is currently used to refer to any policy or governmental arrangement that purportedly emphasizes technical criteria above non-technical values in policy, planning and public decision-making, and which gives significant authority to experts. Various controversies have arisen around technocracy, especially its potential incompatibility with democracy and social values that are not easily translated into technical terms. There is also debate about how feasible a genuine technocracy actually is in practice.

MCNAMARA AND SPEER: KINDRED TECHNOCRAT SPIRITS?

The original inspiration for this page was the identification of a parallel between two seemingly disparate figures: Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in charge of prosecuting the American war in Vietnam at its height; and Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments in Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945. These figures gave unswerving loyal service to their respective masters. They both were seen as proficient technical managers, trying to keep their respective war machines running "efficiently". They both harbored increasing reservations about the wars they were supporting, though they did not go public with these (Speer being a slight exception just before Germany's final defeat). They both presented mea culpas for their roles later but did so in a hedged way that undermined their credibility.  These commonalities suggest some more general truths about a Technocratic order and the ways in which many Technocrats try to exercise power without the responsibility this requires. These are the themes explored in the various outputs presented here.