Public policy, rationality and reason

Abstract

This work suggests the incorporation of practical reason in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies, alongside instrumental rationality. It takes two proposals that today point in this direction: Rawls distinction between reasonable (practical reason) and rational (instrumental reason) and what this author calls the CI Procedure (categorical imperative procedure) and Habermas model of deliberative democracy. The main conclusion is that the analysis of public policies can not be limited to rather narrow limits of science, but requires the contribution of political and moral philosophy.

Keywords

• Políticas públicas, racionalidad instrumental, razonabilidad, Procedimiento IC, política deliberativa