Bushrod W. Allin

Is Group Choice a Part of Economics

Introduction, 362. — I. Ellis and the economic calculus of individual preference, 362. — II. Knight and the science of the price mechanism, 367. — III. Survey of economic education by McKee and Moulton, 373. — IV. Report on undergraduate teaching of economics, 374. — V. Summary, 377.

Is Planning Compatible with Democracy

Democracy as we know it is a class society in which class conflicts are resolved by the peaceful process of collective bargaining. The distinguishing feature of a dictatorship is the substitution of military force for collective bargaining as a means for promoting harmony. Planning in a democracy is not the making of a blueprint, with specifications fixed for all time; it is a social process in which the participation of the layman is as important as that of the expert. This process is nowhere better illustrated than by the agricultural planning now being sponsored by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, where agreement between farmer and expert opinion is an indispensable part of the planning procefure. One aspect of this planning relates to the problem of soil conservation. Here, as in most economic matters requiring the attention of government, the most hopeful procedure for harmonizing public and private interests is the employment of collective persuasions and inducements democratically determined. These can be developed only by planning.

County Planning Project—A Cooperative Approach to Agricultural Planning

Present planning activity of the Department of Agriculture and the Land-Grant Colleges, sometimes called the county planning project and more recently described as the county land-use planning project, is one of the latest chapters in the history of a long succession of cooperative efforts on the part of these institutions to promote a better rural life. More specifically defined, it is a cooperative effort on the part of the various agencies of the USDA, the Land-Grant Colleges, related State and local agencies, and representative farmers in each locality, State, and in the nation as a whole, to develop and currently revise agricultural plans and policies that will serve to coordinate various agricultural programs and related public activities, to increase their effectiveness in promoting long-time as well as emergency objectives, and to develop needed additional programs. The remainder of this paper will be an elaboration of this definition.