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often picked up rather than created. What
is important is aligning these two to the
third one, namely, political environment.
Art of persuasion is bringing these three
into a synchronization. Here, role of plan-
ner is not merely acting as ‘handmaid to
political master’ but to assume the role of
‘speaking truth to power’. A good example
is K .N. Raj (at a young age of 26), architect
of the fi rst Five Year Plan, in opposing
Nehru’s ambitious Soviet-style plan, by
pointing out the incompatibility between
high investment and democratic fabric of
the country.
Policy and planning has primarily worked
within the framework of means-ends dichotomy.
What policy means would achieve
the goals desired. Persuasion is demystifying
the real impossibility of means-ends
dichotomy. What is good for one section is
bad for another. Or what is of strong interest
for humanity is of least interest for future
generation or environment. Thus, exhibiting
the impossibility of means-ends
dichotomy becomes possible by juxtaposing
the existing claims with new ideas. In the
instrumental rationality newer ideas have
little space. Once the means-ends dichotomy
is overcome, the instrumental rationality
has limited role. Thus, persuasion is interested
in cogeneration of practical
wisdom by engaging with stakeholders who
present new ideas or different voices of
democracy. Decisions arrived through this
manner would be in tandem with volition
of the members of society, thus gaining
more legitimacy for them.
Conclusion
Choosing and deciding has been the older
style of planning and policy making. In
post-modern plural democracies, persuasion
becomes the hallmark of planning.
Here, practice of the policy is the concern,
and aims at minimizing the implementation
defi cit. What practice will take place
will be determined by institutionalizing as
to what is given for practice is practical or
not. This is feasible when there is shared
values and beliefs of citizens and the State.
In other words, merely by a Weberian
bureaucratic insulation from ‘societal interests’,
a policy may not be successful.
Rather, autonomy gained through such
insulation must be capable of cogenerating
synergy by aligning with the internal structure
of society. Dialogue has to happen to
generate these shared platforms or aligning
process. This dialogical process actively
encourages different voices and new
ideas to take centre stage than experts occupying
such spaces. Thus, embedded
autonomy is designed and generated
rather than working only with existing
embedded autonomies (existing social ties
of the internal structure of society with internal
structure of the State). This is truly the
State as a social construct, not in a passive
sense, but in active sense (creating new ties)
of we are continuously reconstructing the
State. This is true Swaraj, where neither
there is fear for the citizens about the
mighty arm of the state to control their
behavior, nor there is fear for the State
machinery as to whether society would
take over the former.
References and
Additional Thinking
Bagchi, A. (2007) “ Role of the planning
and the planning commission in the
new Indian economy”, Economic and
Political Weekly, November 3.
Chatterjee, P. (2001) “ Development
planning and the Indian state” in State
and Politics in India (ed. Partha Chatterjee)
New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
I NTEGRATED PLANNING
Chelliah, R. J. (2007) ‘ Strategy for poverty
reduction and narrowing regional
disparities’, Economic and Political
Weekly, August 25.
Ferguson, J. (1994) The anti-politics
machine: ‘Development’, depolitization,
and bureaucratic power in Lesotho.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Flyvbjerg, B. (1998). Rationality and
power: Democracy in practice. Chicago:
The university of Chicago press.
Galbraith, J. K. (1972) Economics,
Peace and Laughter. New York: New
American Library.
Guha, R. (2008) “ Autonomy and ideology”,
Economic and Political Weekly,
February 2.
Keynes, John M. (1936) The General
Theory of Employment, Interest and
Money. New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company.
Kingdon, J. W. (1995) Agendas, alternatives,
and public policies. New York:
Harper Collins.
Roberts, N. C. & Paula J. King (1991)
“Policy Entrepreneurs: Their Activity
Structure and Function in the Policy
Process”, Journal of Public Administration,
Research and Theory 1 (2) pp.
147-175.
Sachs, J. (2005) The end of poverty.
London: Penguin Books.
Scott, J. E. (1998) Seeing like a state.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Stiglitz, J. E. (1997) Economics of the
public sector. New York: W. W. Norton
& Company.
Wade, R. (1990) Governing the market.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
(The views expressed in the write-up are
personal and do not reflect the offi cial policy
or position of the organization.)
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