Customer Reviews

Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice (Morality and Society Series)

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Flyvbjerg does an excellent job of detailing how authority and power relationships influence the rationality of individuals functioning within and around a particular organization. He does this by exemplifying the art of rationalization as opposed to rational thought in certain contexts.

However, he also details how eventually these structures can be altered and how rationality can be used to limit the influence of that particular power. It almost becomes a "push pull relationship" as the powerful lose rationality and the powerless use rationality as a tool. Thus, structures and relationships are regularly altered due to transitions in relationship. Of course, Flyvebjerg does not necessarily see this as a good thing, as it can work to impede progress.

I have to temper my acceptance of the findings in this book, since I do not feel that the sample is homogeneous to other cities much less other countries. However, it is a must read for future public administrators. For no other reason than it provides insight into the lag of rationality within organizations and the dangers of to much "power".

A quote from this book says it all for me and I imagine also for those that have been practising PM for a lot of years and studying the various related areas of study and research to gain new insights as to why so many projects fail or fall short of expected sucess....."Power has a rationality that rationality does not know, whereas rationality does not have a power that power does not know".
Perhaps this should be regarded as separate sector in terms of stakeholder management.

Great narrative of the planning process. There is much that can be learned about this very interesting case of planning, plus the story presented is very intriguing in and of itself. The author is very knowledgeable in planning and how it practically relates to philosophy and human nature.

It is a must read book for everyone. The way that Flyvbjerg structure his book and the language he use, he make this book suitable for all readers. Importantly, he cleverly and clearly presented the case of rationality and power in planning, but show the difficultly in striking a balance. So is it, 'Rationality over Power, or Power over Rationality' , this book give you an insight that allow readers to look around themselves.