Description
Most studies focusing on land-use and other spatial planning tends to focus on the city, the county, or similarly low level entities. This collection of 11 comparative essays examines the role of national planning (whether determined by statute or agencies) in democratic industrially developed countries and explores the interaction of national planning agencies with lower level bodies. After an introductory essay setting forth some of the broad issues of national level planning, separate treatments of the United States, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and Israel are provided. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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National-level spatial planning in democratic countries has been all but ignored by researchers in urban and regional planning since the reconstruction years following World War II. Being synonymous for many with repressive regimes and coercive government practices, national-level planning also fell into some disrepute. A set of specially commissioned papers from leading researchers has produced this challenging and comprehensive study of current national-level planning in ten countries of the developed world. Challenging common assumptions, this comparative international study finds that there seems to be a modest trend whereby, on the threshold of the 21st century, national-level planning has grown in importance in democratic, advanced-economy countries.
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