ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that claim in light of a specific political phenomenon: public policies. It considers the usefulness of the control and facilitation framework generally as a tool for the analysis of public policy, and specifically as it might be applicable to the examination of planning policy failures in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, economic development planning is commonplace. "Africa is a continent of economic plans," states Andrew M. Kamarck. "The independent African countries plunged into the fight for economic development with new ideas and bright hopes for a quick and decisive change for the better; but many of them failed to make even the slightest change." Most positive evaluations of development planning in Africa tend to concentrate on the "side benefits" derived from planning efforts. The planner expert's image will be relevant and useful where its content is adaptable to the environmental conditions of the subject society without being so adaptable that it has no structural or strategic logic.
