ABSTRACT
As most literature agrees, planning is an integral part of a particular political system and institutional fabric in a given country, while planning practice is extensively embedded within the operation of that particular overall socioeconomic and political environment (Bourne 1984: 150, Cullingworth 1993: 178, and Ng 1999: 6). In other words, the political economy of a society defines the necessity of urban planning and delineates the measures that urban planning can reasonably resort to (Yeh 1999: 169). Inevitably, the planning that is done is directly related to the evolving paradigm shifts in a country’s development. That is, the paradigm shift in a country imposes significant changes upon its socioeconomic, urban and regional trajectories, and brings vast impact on its planning systems (Healey 1992, Davies 1998, Bertolini and Salef 2003, and Teitz 1996 and 1997).
