ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the planning systems of the United States and Finland and examines changes in planning structures, philosophies and approaches. It describes the experience of Oregon and Ohio and explores two very different planning systems. One has been highly centralized, while the other is constitutionally prohibited from centralizing. In Finland the national level of planning is dominant. The regional level is an administratively-created and a non-self-governing level, which exercises delegated authority from the central or national level. The situation in Finland is in the throes of change, however, as strong currents for decentralization are growing, and as accommodations to the EU must be made. The United States, in contrast, has no formal land use planning authority at the national level. Land use planning is exercised exclusively by the states. States vary significantly in the importance they attach to planning.
