ABSTRACT
A key justification for the localism agenda in the UK is democratization of decision-making. The critique of this local trap is growing with a focus primarily on the portrayal of the local as a bounded spatial unit that contains a unified and homogeneous community. This chapter focuses on this critique by questioning the democratic legitimacy of neighbourhood planning, which is currently the most visible manifestation of localism in England. As with localism, neighbourhood planning has attracted growing criticism related to issues such as: the gap between the rhetoric and reality of community empowerment, the administrative inconsistencies in its implementations and the underlying neoliberal motivations for the reform of the planning system. Both descriptive and normative perspectives have been subject to a number of criticisms. The obligatory referendum, which is often seen as the height of democracy, is related to the substance of the plan and not the procedures by which those who produce the plan are selected.
