ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the term planning in both a broader and a more neutral sense. It attempts to avoid the emotional implications of the term, and to use it to refer to a broadly defined type of administrative activity. Planning is that activity that concerns itself with proposals for the future, with the evaluation of alternative proposals, and with the methods by which these proposals may be achieved. Planning is involved in the development of program goals, in the formulation of legislation, and at every step in the path of executing continuing programs. A large part of all planning activity lies in determining what goals are to be sought—what pattern of ultimate behavior among the many possible patterns is to be preferred. The goals of specific or short-run planning are less subject to attack than the broad planning goals because they are constantly submitted to a well recognized and accepted process of validation.
