Citizen Participation, the ‘Knowledge Problem’ and Urban Land Use Planning: An Austrian Perspective on Institutional Choice

Author: Pennington Mark  

Publisher: Springer Publishing Company

ISSN: 0889-3047

Source: The Review of Austrian Economics, Vol.17, Iss.2-3, 2004-06, pp. : 213-231

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

At the forefront of the argument for government-directed land use planning is the notion that ‘citizen participation’ in urban land use decisions can avoid the problems associated with bureaucratic governance and tackle widespread instances of ‘market failure’. Using illustrations from the British land use planning system this paper argues that participatory planning models are insufficiently attuned to the problems of social co-ordination generated by the absence of market prices and of the importance of private property rights in facilitating ‘experiments in urban living’.