Democracy and Social Planning

The Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities has sponsored a research project entitled 'Democracy and Social Planning'. It is basically a study of political history and political philosophy and was motivated by the belief that any viable democracy must continually question its own foundations. Politicians implement democracy and planning and social scientists study how they work in practice, but prior to both is the conceptual and normative discussion of what the democratic values are, and how they relate to efficiency. The project is at the confluence of several traditions. One ancestor is the study of democracy initiated by UNESCO after the Second World War, in which Norwegian scholars such as Arne NEss, Stein Rokkan and Jens Christophersen were prominent. The subject matter itself has recently been rejuvenated by fundamental theoretical contributions that are well represented in the project. First, there is the theory of social choice that has brought out with unprecedented clarity the tragic dilemmas that democracy must cope with. Secondly, there is the great work by John Rawls that has led to a renaissance of normative political philosophy in the Anglo-Saxon world. And, thirdly, the work of Jurgen Habermas has been a decisive statement of the tradition that sees rational and public discussion as the essence of politics. The project will also draw upon historical sources, from the history of ideas and from political history proper, from a conviction that conceptual clarity and historical depth mutually presuppose each other. The project involves four sub-projects that are more closely described below

Democracy · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Normative · Political economy · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · European and International Law Studies · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Systems and Governance · Social Policy and Reform Studies