Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott

James C. Scott’s Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed examines the way that governments have tried and failed to impose various grand schemes to improve the human condition. Scott identifies four main features of the state’s interventionist projects, including “centralized intelligence and coordination, policy enforced from the top down, standardization of practices, and simplification and distortion of social realities”. He then looks at a variety of examples from different countries and different eras and finds that these schemes have often failed to achieve the desired results.

Scott begins by looking at the ideas of the eighteenth-century Prussian bureaucrat, Friedrich List, who believed that the state could create and protect a social order based on enlightened self-interest. Scott goes on to show how the theories of List and other bureaucratic thinkers have been used repeatedly to justify the oppressive measures of authoritarian regimes like the Soviet Union and East Germany.

Scott then looks at a variety of projects undertaken in countries like Russia, China, India, and the United States. He examines how the state has tried to impose large-scale schemes for improving agriculture, industry, and other economic activities. He shows how these projects have often been pursued at the expense of local communities and how the schemes have failed to benefit the people they were intended to help.

Next, Scott takes a closer look at the ways in which the state has tried to reshape its citizens’ habits and behaviors. He looks at projects like urban planning, the enforcement of zoning laws, and the banning of certain traditional practices. He shows how such interventions have often played into the hands of those with economic or political power, at the expense of those without.

Finally, Scott examines the state’s persistent failure to recognize the complexity of situations and its inability to successfully implement its schemes. He argues that the state's insistence on standardization and simplification has often led to unintended consequences, while its refusal to recognize the role of local knowledge and experience has led to costly mistakes.

In conclusion, Scott argues that the state’s attempts to improve the human condition have often been misguided and have failed to produce the desired results. He argues that decisions about how to improve the lives of citizens should be left to those closest to the problems and that the state should take a more humble approach to its interventions. Overall, Seeing like a State offers a valuable insight into the failures of state-led interventions and provides a cautionary tale for those seeking to improve the lives of their citizens.