This book provides a fascinating analysis of how state-led planning can lead to disastrous consequences. It highlights the importance of local knowledge and bottom-up approaches to problem-solving, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the limitations of top-down planning. With a clear and accessible writing style, Seeing Like a State offers an insightful critique of government-led initiatives and their impact on society and the environment.

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• Mattei Dogan Award (2000)
• Wildavsky Award for Enduring Contribution to Policy Studies (2015)

"One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades." —John Gray, New York Times Book ReviewHailed as "a magisterial critique of top-down social planning" by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters."Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit." —New Yorker"A tour de force." —Charles Tilly, Columbia University

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