The Government Machine: A Revolutionary History of the Computer (review)

This book traces the history of the British government as a "machine" in itself, and its use of machines in order to fulfill its functions. Jon Agar analyzes the development of ideas of government and the (ideal) ways it should function while simultaneously charting the evolution of organization, systems, office machinery, and ultimately the computer in carrying out the tasks of government. One of his central premises is that the idea of the machine-driven government precedes the actual uses of machinery, and indeed fosters and promotes the development of machinery.

The Government Machine begins with a survey of the ways in which the technical aspects of government developed in the nineteenth century and the ways in which ideas of mechanization began to be put forward. Agar traces the rise of statisticians within government and the subsequent rise of "mechanisers." Throughout the book, he is keen to describe the plans conceived by various reformers and activists, and to assess the influence, implementation, and actual impact of their ideas. In the first instance Agar confronts the idea of a generalist, nontechnocratic civil service in Britain, arguing that at key governmental levels expertise actually drove change. Of course, the "machinery of government" exists as a metaphor, but it is only one of many. Agar provides an exhaustive survey of rival metaphors from the nineteenth century, followed by an analysis of the reforms spearheaded by Charles Trevelyan. Here we see the real emergence of the idea of government as a machine, in the context of "lower classes" increasingly staffing the civil service (and needing more control than their "gentlemanly" predecessors) and the beginnings of automation with typewriters and copying devices. Technocrats begin to develop grand plans for this "machine."

At the turn of the twentieth century Britain became obsessed with a sense of social crisis. At the same moment, technocratic ideas of efficiency began to gain ground, some challenging the basic premises of democracy. Agar provides an intriguing insight into the ways in which certain ideas permeated government. In order to have an efficient nation, the first task is to measure and quantify the state of the nation. Agar traces the growing perception that statistics and information were important. He also examines the developing methodology of statisticians and the networks they inhabited, often in forms that seemed to defy standard departmental divisions.

There is a fascinating account of the schemes that emerged around World War I aimed at undertaking an audit, a national registry assessing each individual in the population on the basis of moral standing, economic ability, health, and family responsibility. Such schemes foundered against the tide of British cultural resistance to registries of a continental type, but national registers did begin to emerge in other forms: drivers' licenses and the files of Scotland Yard, for example. With the growth of such systems, actual machinery became increasingly important in managing and distilling information. Agar traces the mechanization of government offices from the very beginning. Here, he might be accused of taking a Whiggish approach by singling out the punched-card reader (from among twenty-one other office technologies) for special treatment because of its role in the development of the computer. Still, his is an impressive survey of the use of this machine, and he stakes a bold claim that rationalizing corporations in the United States were beaten to the punch by the British civil service.

World War II is often thought to have played the key role in the genesis of computing proper and the beginning of an intense period of government-sponsored R&D involving business technology. In impressive detail and with many keen insights, Agar traces the development of a range of technologies and processes. He also examines the computerization of governmental functions and the ambitions and rivalries of various departments, notably the Treasury's attempts to foster organization and methods as part of a hegemonic project. What emerges throughout this narrative is a tale of British peculiarity...