Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State by Parag Khanna

Author:Parag Khanna [Khanna, Parag]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2017-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

The Best and the Brightest

It is just as important for the effectiveness of the executive branch that the president and cabinet be supported by a strong civil service that maintains the proper functioning of government agencies. A professional civil service is crucial to maintaining a gap between party and state, for its members are stewards of national governance who know how to administer the state, not a cadre of self-interested political cronies. Simply put: A civil service gets things done even if elected politicians do nothing.

In the UK, the civil service designs the entire federal budget and submits it to parliament for feedback and approval before it is executed. And yet it’s hard to imagine a technocratic system ever plunging itself headlong into a political vacuum such as the “Brexit.” By some accounts, stormy weather kept many complacent “Remain” voters at home, allowing the “Leave” camp to narrowly prevail. Does a smart country consign itself to strategic oblivion based on a simple majority vote on a rainy day? After the Brexit results emerged, a civil service committee was hastily cobbled together to examine the implications of the decision. In a proper technocracy, the civil service studies the scenarios and consequences of issues before the parliament or people decide which course to take—not after. Then, parliament could consult actively with the citizenry before taking a vote requiring a two-thirds super-majority.

The still-unfolding Brexit debacle underscores that the triumph of politics over rationality is almost as acute in Britain as in the US. And it is no surprise: Since 1973, the UK’s civil service has been slashed by more than one-third to under 450,000 staff. A decade ago, journalist Anthony Sampson provocatively wrote Who Runs this Place?, an acerbic analysis of British politics concluding that the combination of recycled politicians, shady special interests and a neutered civil service meant that democracy had been stripped of both accountability and effectiveness. Everyone is feeding at the trough; nobody is manning the wheel.

Today it is Singapore’s civil service that ranks highest in the world both in terms of its capacity and bureaucratic autonomy. All cabinet ministers are matched to permanent secretaries from the civil service who know the beat inside out. Singapore’s civil service is a spiral staircase: With each rung you learn to manage a different portfolio, building a broad knowledge base and first-hand experience. By contrast, American politics is like an elevator: One can get in on the bottom floor and go straight to top, missing all the learning in between.

American strategists revere Andy Marshall, the recently retired director of the DoD’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA) that creates war scenarios and futuristic battle concepts to confront them. Singaporean Siong Guan Lim—who, like Andy Marshall, is nicknamed “Yoda”—is a mechanical engineer who served as permanent secretary for defense, education and finance, ran the Economic Development Board (EDB), Civil Service and Prime Minister’s Office, and chaired the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) sovereign wealth fund. He is known for rarely imposing an idea but always seeking to generate a collective vision among colleagues.

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