PLANNING IN THE UNITED STATES--SOME REACTIONS BY A FOREIGN OBSERVER.

This article focuses on planning in the United States. Whatever type of planning one has in mind, the context within which planning takes place is critical for its characteristics. In particular, planning under conditions of rapid social transformation is basically different from planning under conditions of stability. The one most important difference between planning under conditions of rapid social transformation and planning under conditions of stability is that when society is passing through rapid transformations, much less can be taken for granted. Planning is a multimeaning term but, at the very least, it implies efforts to shape the future with the help of structured rationality, systematic knowledge, and organized creativity. It constitutes one mode of policy making distinguished by first, a medium-to-long time perspective, and two, much attention to internal consistency between a range of subdecisions. There are many possible planning styles, and the number of available planning modes, methodologies, methods, and tools is very large.