ABSTRACT
Earlier chapters have developed the understanding of how comparative studies in planning have evolved and the sort of pitfalls that in principle await the researcher in this field. In this chapter I attempt to extend the discussion by looking in detail at the problems of comparing planning systems in Britain and France, and by trying to come to terms with the differences in the environment in which the planning systems operate. The aim is to get beyond a simplistic comparison of means and ends and to highlight the dangers of false analogy. The premise is that planning is not only bound up with the nature of the area planned but more particularly with the nature of the administrative and legal framework which sustains it.
