ABSTRACT
A set of common assumptions can be disentangled from the diffuse and seemingly inconsistent statements which—rambling or crisply underscored, pedantically precise or dignified by sociological metaphysics—articulate the proposals and reports. This chapter reviews the progress of some of the programmes, to see how far their experience seems to support the assumptions on which they were based. Sensitive sounding of influential groups by Foundation staff and Federal departments preceded any precise statement of purpose: the programme proposals which followed were, characteristically, criticized for lack of clear aims; the final proposals were a compromise, in which expediency was rationalized by very generalized goals. Once the projects began to put their programmes into effect, their actions were more than ever shaped by the means to hand. The danger is discussed most explicitly in the speeches which Paul Ylvisaker, director of the Foundation's grey area programme, delivered in 1964.
