Between State and Market: A Third Way of Planning

The ‘Third Way’ offers a critical but realistic view of planning to support a progressive agenda. Grounded in integrated transaction-cost theory (TCT), it refutes neo-liberal arguments from their own economic theory, associating planning with organization, breaking its juxtaposition to ‘the market’ and recognizing planning in the market and planning for and of markets, which includes public planning and regulation. The ‘Third Way’ disarms libertarian attacks on public planning, while TCT forces retreat from generalizations to focus debate on particular issues and cases. Here contingent TCT-based institutional analysis and design is the tool for promoting progressive values, enabling effective resistance to neo-liberal practices and encroaching globalization.