ABSTRACT
If planners have traditionally regarded themselves as outside politics, for the most part they are inside the state. Such is the role of the bureaucrat, a role most clearly and, many would argue, best defined by Max Weber. If politics is viewed as the overt daily struggle of individuals, groups and classes to pursue their legitimate interests, then the bureaucrat is either above politics – offering specialist expertise, continuity and, above all, rationality – or beneath politics, serving and aiding the people’s representatives. Yet the bureaucrat is integrated within a structure of domination and authority. In the case of urban planners that structure is the state.
