David E. Wilson – Författare

This annotated bibliography of more than 2,000 entries, current through 1977, sheds light on the national planning idea as a substantive issue in past, present, and future U.S. public policy; presents a bibliographic structure that suggests new emphases, relationships, and interdisciplinary approaches; and makes more easily accessible to students and researchers the enormous volume of literature on the subject. Its emphasis is on material from four disciplines—public administration, political science, economics, and sociology—and, to a lesser extent, on eleven key national planning-related fields. The bibliography is a companion to The National Planning Idea in U.S. Public Policy: Five Alternative Approaches, to be published by Westview in September of this year.

This annotated bibliography of more than 2,000 entries sheds light on the national planning idea as a substantive issue in past, present, and future U.S. public policy and presents a bibliographic structure that suggests new emphases, relationships, and interdisciplinary approaches.

This book explores the eventful but largely forgotten history of national planning efforts in the United States, first identifying and comparing five alternative approaches to contemporary national planning, then using these approaches to assess the events of 1973-1976, a period when crisis pressures brought a vigorous resurgence of national planning activity and debate. Dr. Wilson concludes that two new approaches to planning— "learning-adaptive" and general systems—are increasingly being used in lieu of the long-established, and less flexible, rational and incremental approaches, and that these might eventually achieve a beneficial new synthesis in both federal policy practice and social science theory. He argues that the twin questions of a planned versus a planning society and of who will plan for whom are inexorably emerging as key issues in U.S. public policy. Along with its companion volume—National Planning in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography, also published by Westview—this book provides extensive new interdisciplinary research material and integrative perspectives on current planning challenges.

This book explores the eventful but largely forgotten history of national planning efforts in the United States, first identifying and comparing five alternative approaches to contemporary national planning, then using these approaches to assess the events of 1973-1976, a period when crisis pressures brought a vigorous resurgence of national planning activity and debate. Dr. Wilson concludes that two new approaches to planning— "learning-adaptive" and general systems—are increasingly being used in lieu of the long-established, and less flexible, rational and incremental approaches, and that these might eventually achieve a beneficial new synthesis in both federal policy practice and social science theory. He argues that the twin questions of a planned versus a planning society and of who will plan for whom are inexorably emerging as key issues in U.S. public policy. Along with its companion volume—National Planning in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography, also published by Westview—this book provides extensive new interdisciplinary research material and integrative perspectives on current planning challenges.