The future of planning at the 'end of history'

The hegemony of neoliberalism now poses a fundamental challenge to planners worldwide. Most influential in this regard has been Francis Fukuyama's 'end of history' ideology and its progenies - or mutations - such as the Third Way. A close reading of their proponents (especially Anthony Giddens) and critics (Perry Anderson, Pierre Bourdieu, Alex Callinicos, John Gray and others) with reference to the contrasting political-economic theories of Friedrich von Hayek and Karl Polanyi, however, reveals the fundamental contradictions of neoliberalism - especially between capitalism and democracy - and identifies for progressive planning the role of extending radical democracy to the realms of the state and the economy.