ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the French planning system has clearly drifted away from the regional economic ideal type; the evolution is neither linear, nor finished. It aims to show the organization of the French planning system, which features some of the characteristics of the comprehensive integrated ideal type. It also shows the shortcomings of the system when dealing with contemporary challenges, in particular difficulties linked with unclear governance patterns. The chapter provides new disruption linked to the financial crisis, which puts spatial planning at risk of becoming the umbrella of sectoral policies designed to support economic sectors in trouble. The chapter shows how the system deals with key issues such as metropolitanization, urban sprawl and social fragmentation. It argues that the shortcomings of the system call for further adjustments. External and internal drivers keep impacting the goals of spatial planning, tearing them in different directions. Globalization and international competition foster neoliberal approaches oriented towards territorial competitiveness.
