Ideologies / Technocrat / Robert McNamara
§ The minds · 1916–2009 · United States · Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara
The whiz kid
Government by quantitative analysis.
Economic+66
SocialistMarket
Governance+28
LibertarianAuthoritarian
Social+0
TraditionalProgressive
The Ford executive turned defense secretary and World Bank head, whose faith in quantitative management epitomised — and exposed the limits of — government by metrics.
social
Modernist faith in data — and its tragic blind spots in Vietnam.
economic
Corporate-managerial efficiency applied to the state.
governance
Systems analysis and metrics as the basis of decision.
Notable for
- Brought systems analysis to the Pentagon
- Led the World Bank
- Cautionary Vietnam record
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