Whatever the ultimate outcome, it is evident that modern society has already moved rather far into the age of control. It is an age marked by widening efforts to master a refractory industrial system. That a technique for control will emerge, that there is and will be planning, is hardly in question. What is more doubtful is the character and direction of the new instruments of intervention and constraint. For these have been born of social crisis, set out piecemeal as circumstances have demanded; they have not come to us as part of a broad and conscious vision. As a consequence, the foundations of a clear-cut choice between totalitarian and democratic planning have not been adequately laid; nor has the distinction been altogether clear between planning directed toward some acceptable version of the common good and planning for the effective maintenance of existing and emerging centers of privilege and power (W. U. Chandler, Myth of TVA, 1984, pg 78).
Democracy has to do with means, with instruments, with tools which define the relation between authority and the individual. In our time, new and inescapable tasks demand a choice among available means within the framework of increased governmental control. It is therefore especially important to examine those organizations which are proposed as contributions to the technique of democratic planning. An example of such a proposed contribution is the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In addition, much of the comment friendly to the agency has stressed its contribution to a new synthesis, one which would unite positive government the welfare or service state with a rigorous adherence to the principles of democracy.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was created by Congress in May, 1933, as a response to a long period of pressure for the disposition of government-owned properties at Muscle Shoals, Alabama.............
