num_pages: 464
description: Why have large-scale schemes to improve the human condition in the twentieth century so often gone awry? James C. Scott analyzes diverse failures in high-modernist, authoritarian state planning-collectivization in Russia, the building of Brasilia, compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, and others-and uncovers conditions common to all such planning disasters. What these failures teach us, he argues, is that any centrally managed social plan must recognize the importance of local customs and practical knowledge if it hopes to succeed.
language: English
title: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
titlecomplete: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (The Institution for Social and Policy St)
genres: Sociology, Politics, Political Science, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History, International Relations, Economics, Social Science
ratings_count: 5086
series: The Institution for Social and Policy Studies
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Mattei Dogan Award, awardedAt: 1420099200000
name: Wildavsky Award for Enduring Contribution to Policy Studies
publisher: Yale University Press