Dr. Greg McAvoy

Political Science

Professor, 2016

Inquiry and Change: The Troubled Attempt to Understand and Shape Society
by Charles E. Lindblom

Like many others, I have long admired the work of Charles Lindblom for his ability to re-conceptualize familiar institutions, like democratic governments and economic markets, and provide fresh insights regarding their compatibility. He is best known for his book, Politics and Markets, but I think his book, Inquiry and Change, merits equal attention. In Inquiry and Change, he focuses on the core principles of democratic decision-making and the need for political debate in policy-making over core values, ends, and outcomes. Lindblom compares the political process of democratic decision-making to a technical process of expert decision-making, and argues that on the whole we should prefer democracy to technocracy. This is a particularly important argument in modern times where the messiness of politics is often seen as problematic and the removal of decisions from the political realm is viewed as desirable.

View title in library catalog