ABSTRACT
Both institutional and pragmatist orientations base their normative and purposeful search for legitimacy and the effectuation of public action on their connection with practical context in action. They do this in their own distinguished ways. This chapter explains first the logic of pragmatism. It is situational, experimental, and consequential. This thinking culminates in the “practical judgment”: assessing the best strategy by comparing the expected outcomes of different options to solve the problems of the public. This is discussed with the “institutional judgment,” which might best be described as the normative discovery of “appropriateness.” The final part of this chapter focuses on the poignant relationship between planning and law. Here, the normative concept of legality meets the instrumentality of pragmatism.
