Progress and planning in America over the past 30 years

Progress and planning are inextricably linked in American culture and history. The idea of progress itself is rooted in 18th Century Enlightenment philosophy, which formed the conceptual basis of the US constitution. That constitution was an expression of th belief that human society could be designed and improved, a view that has permeated the utopian roots of urban and regional planning as it has emerged over the past two centuries. American institutions express optimism about the human condition, based in the belief that it is possible to fix what is broken and improve what is defective. Such a belief implies that it is possible to plan for a better future, a fundamental element of the idea of progress itself. But the US also exemplifies other profound ideas, namely, freedom, private property, and individualism, all of which are consistent with the notion of progress, but not necessarily of planning as an activity of government, carried out for the common good. In this most capitalist of societies, the very idea of public planning has been repeatedly challenged and opposed in moderm American history, usually in the name of freedom, private property, and individual rights, often cloaking simple economic interest. American public life is permeated with distrust of government, and this distrust has been incresing in recent years. Thus, if planning has been invoked in the name of progress, equally has it been denounced in the same cause. The result is a paradox for planning in American society-in which planning is sumultaneously invoked and denounced. In order to assess the question of whether there has been progress, it is necessary both to define what is meant by progress in such a context, and to examine carefully the state of the field as it has evolved.