The Social Planner's Preoccupation with Information
| Date | 01 June 1983 |
| Published date | 01 June 1983 |
| Author | HELEN SUNGAILA |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1983.tb00516.x |
CORRESPONDENCE
Sirs,
The
Social
Planners’ Preoccupation
with
Information
Booth in his recent article, ’Economics and the Poverty of Social Planning’
(Public
Administration
60,2),
points to the preoccupation of British policy-makers with
economic objectives rather than social goals. But
I
believe his paper betrays
another preoccupation
-
a characteristic of social planners themselves
-
which
could be equally deleterious. They are preoccupied with information: information
which policy-makers do not wish to consider; information which
is
simply not
available; information which is not comprehensive enough; and information
which
is
not sought in preference to information about the state of the economy.
It
makes perfectly good sense for planners everywhere to
be
concerned about
collecting, processing and analyzing data. Planning represents a rational,
scientific approach to public policy-making and depends on the production
and processing of facts about regularities presumed to underlie the natural world.
These regularities might never be understood by the scientist, but they can be
explained by him in terms of theories
-
logically integrated, quantitatively
expressed, lawlike statements. With accurate information about the relevant
initial conditions such theories can be used to predict future stat& of a system, and
so
to control it.
If
the social planner’s aim is to steer society, he must also be in control. Being in
control depends, according to the scientific method, on his having accurate
information and at least good working models,
if
not good theories of social
reality,
so
that he can predict the future state of society and control it.
The policy-maker
is
also interested in control, but in a somewhat different sense
becausethere
is,
forhim,
no
necessarynexus between illformationandcontrol.
If
any piece
of information increases his capacity to control the social environment, to make its
future state more predictable, including a future state in which his political
survival
is
assured, he will use such information. It
is
not only the Thatcher
Government or the British people who are seeking to do more and more research
into the economy; and
I
do not believe such research
is
carried out because social
goals have been subordinated to economic objectives. It is pursued because it
offers the only adequate response to the uncertainty posed by the vagaries of
national economic behaviour.
Politicians are not interested in problems, not even presently existing ones,
much less those of the future. Their only concern is with problems which
individuals or groups
turn
into issues and where information might act to promote
this process.
As
Orwell put it, ‘ignorance is strength’. Why would any government
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