The Case for a Positive Theory of Planning. Part 2: A Positive Theory of Planning

The resource for the development of a positive theory of planning exists in ‘public choice’ theory. This work applies the precepts of microeconomics to the behaviour of governments, bureaucrats, and individuals in making choices within a political or collective decisionmaking environment. In this paper, a positive theory of planning is elaborated and its utility both in understanding the practice of planning and in assessing normative theoretical contributions is demonstrated. As long as both theory and practice implicitly existed within the progressive ethos of planning, there could be a harmony of interest between the two. However, such a coincidence of interest was almost certain to be temporary given the pressures on practice and the potential for theorists to challenge both the reformist outlook and the necessity for a progressive direction to practice. When the breakdown came in the 1970s, theory began to appear aimless and divorced from practice. The significance of positive theory for planning is that it recovers the position. It makes clear what planning is or tends to become and it provides a rigorous context for scrutinizing practice and normative theorizing—something a casual reliance on a shared sense of values could never do.