ABSTRACT
Planning policies are the product of three overlapping elements: the legal system defi ning national rules, the decision processes which regulate plan making, and administrative procedures that determine the operation of specialised organisations and the bureaucracy in general. Historically, however, French and British traditions have diverged in each one of these three areas, starting with the place of central and local authorities in local politics. Even if various forms of centralisation have appeared across the Channel and despite the French constitutional reform of 2003 that established the principle of a ‘decentralised organisation of the indivisible state’,1 this contrast remains evident. ‘Even if the Westminster Parliament claims total sovereignty over all the regions of the United Kingdom, it has not chosen to realise this claim through a uniform model of central administration’ (Stoker 1998: 230). Thus, spatial planning arises from radically different conceptions and practices: France having chosen to stay unitary and the United Kingdom having become quasi-federal (Hazell 2004) since the devolution of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since 2000, Scottish and Welsh local authorities have been subject to the executives (Scottish Executive and Welsh Executive) of the regional assemblies, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, and not the ministry responsible for local government, which must now limit its action to England.
