Rationality and Chaos in Planning: An Emphasis on Goulet's Theory of Rationality

Abstract

Many years have passed since the adoption of planning mechanism in the development process of Iran. However, Iran has been failed to achieve this goal. The investigation of different levels of decision making in Iran shows that two factors are among the main reasons that lead the planning structure of Iran to be interwoven with a circle of underdevelopment. These two factors are lack of attention to the element of goal orientation, which means lack of proper understanding of concept of development in the planning process, and ignoring the element of rationality, which means not paying attention to the nature of man, his way of thinking and the collective identity of his decisions and actions. In this study, we have used the theoretical foundations of Goulet's classification of rationality and two criteria of coordination and commitment in the implementation of programs to study the interaction between rationality of different planning groups. Then, we have represented some experiences of decision-making in Iran to identify the dominant rationality in planning system of Iran. Our findings show that decision-making priorities in Iran have been derived from a reductionist interaction rather than an efficient interaction between rationalities and it was political rationality that dominated at various levels of decision-making.

Keywords

• planning process
• goal orientation
• rationality
• denis goulet
• reductionist interaction