“Policymaking and Learning Actors, or Is A Double Movement in Cognition Possible?”

The aim of the paper is to draw on the insights of two major scholars – Karl Polanyi and Herbert A. Simon – to discuss the nature of public policy when an inconsistency arises between economic constraints to social reform and societal pressures for a humane society. The paper contends that policy should not focus on the material effects of economic and institutional change alone. If procedurally rational members of society are to choose what economy and what society they want, they need to learn how to pursue change. A major concern for policy makers, therefore, must be how actors learn. In this perspective, they must view policy as a co-creator of a change-oriented knowledge.