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Showing papers on "Great Rationality Debate published in 1979"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the main objectives of policy-making are categorized into three broad categories: real goods and services, agenda management, and consensus seeking, and the authors attempt to answer this question by considering a number of theoretical problems and go on to suggest an operational meaning of rationality and its implication for the organization of policy making structures.
Abstract: Political scientists are seen as having some technical expertise in policy studies which might help policy-makers in devising policies which “work”. Difficulties are likely to arise, however, if we do not first ask some fundamental questions. One seemingly obvious, though extremely difficult, question is “what are policies for ?” Having categorized the main objectives of policy-making into three broad categories – namely “real” goods and services, agenda management, and. consensus seeking– we go on to ask how these objectives can be reached in a rational way. We attempt to answer this question by considering a number of theoretical problems and go on to suggest an operational meaning of rationality and its implication for the organization of policy-making structures. We suggest that a distinction is made between sector rationality, coordinated rationality and decentralized rationality. We also discuss the nature of policy communities, the degree to which they are becoming overcrowded due to demands for greater (and often unconventional) participation and the problems of achieving both consensus and rationality.

28 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Anne Buttimer1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss reason, rationality, and human creativity in the context of Geografiska Annaler series B, Human Geography: Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 43-49.
Abstract: (1979). Reason, Rationality, and Human Creativity. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography: Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 43-49.

14 citations