ABSTRACT
The characteristics of the urban planning system of a nation generally reflect the overall socio-economic and political environment within which it operates. To put it another way, the political economy of the society defines the necessity of urban planning and delineates the measures to which urban planning can possibly resort. In a market-driven society, the necessity of urban planning stems from the existence of externalities and the need to provide public goods. In a planned economy, urban planning is perceived as a tool to realize the socialist ideology of planned development and to ‘translate’ the goal of economic planning into urban space. The difference in the necessity of planning results in different features of planning. Generally, in a market economy, private property rights should be protected and should not be taken for public use without just compensation. Thus, urban planning is usually passive. Planning under the concept of ‘police power’ is used to prevent undesirable land uses. Although recently under the public and private partnership the government's ability to initiate a specific project has increased, the government still has limited power in the promotion of a desirable growth pattern. In contrast, under dominant public ownership, the socialist state has the paramount power to control urban development, although, due to the existence of politics, this does not necessarily mean that urban development under such a system has followed well-prepared plans. Urban planning under a society that is dominated by public ownership can resort to direct resource control. The legitimacy of urban planning was unchallenged as long as it followed economic planning. Competition and bargaining for resource allocation were settled within government organizations. Also, although urban land was in the hands of ‘the state’, land was managed in a fragmented way. The actual occupant – mostly the state production unit – decided the use of the land. Thus, planning did not need to employ legal measures or development control, and was a management tool of the socialist government.
