ABSTRACT
This chapter describes metropolitan planning in Madrid since 1860. It accents the period since the 1960s. This synopsis of the era before 1983 is arranged into four periods. The Madrid story tells of the remarkable durability of the institution of metropolitan planning, despite great changes accompanying each period. The institutional structures, processes, and content persisted in the face of the upheavals the changes wrought. The story also tells how the institution actually shaped policy and not merely framed or implemented it. This last point runs counter to the received view in which policy makers, politics, or events play leading roles. It further learns that the institution sought flexibility regardless of its internal character or external situation. Finally we see how images shaped policy and the institution itself. Madrid's modern planning history reflects the influence of the times on specific events and vice versa. It reflects the transition of planning as reacting to growth to planning as a symbolic political instrument.
