Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

The case of a very successful developing country—Taiwan—is examined in order to assess the importance of market phenomena and governmental policy leadership for promoting development. In their analysis of postwar Taiwan, therefore, the authors reject the temptation to dichotomize ‘state versus market’, and instead argue strongly in favor of a ‘state and market’ approach. The ability to accommodate and manipulate economic market forces was central to Taiwan's economic miracle because the island's businesses became highly competitive on world markets and carved out a niche of comparative advantage in the global economy. Much of the credit for this, furthermore, rests with the flexible production of small private firms. However, the state also played a significant role in boosting the island's competitiveness by promoting several structural transformations of the economy, creating a good business environment for entrepreneurs, channeling foreign capital into a few vital sectors, and financing infrastructure and human capital development. A key factor in the state's positive role, in turn, appears to be regime autonomy. That is, until quite recently, the government has been rather autonomous from social forces and unconstrained by electoral politics and popular accountability.

The ‘new’ planning system introduced in England and Wales by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 has focused attention on the role of the development plan as a ‘material consideration’. Debate currently under way by planning lawyers and policymakers is concentrated on whether the plan is an effective implementation tool. This paper, through a case-study, provides a consideration of the problems the ‘new’ planning system has sought to tackle and is one of the first pieces of research since the introduction of the 1991 Act to include an assessment of the effectiveness of the British planning policy framework. It has been found that the use in the planning appeals system of what are termed ‘material considerations’ provides a clear indication of the effectiveness of local planning policies and, simultaneously, allows for assessments to be made of both the development control and the forward planning functions of local planning authorities (LPAs). An analysis of planning inspectors' decision letters has been used in this paper to identify the principal considerations in appeal determinations, indicating for the LPA how its development plan policies are operating in practice.

The analysis shows the degree to which local policies are ‘standing up’ at appeal against other material considerations, especially national policy guidance from the Secretary of State. It can be seen that the scope of the term ‘material considerations’ is problematic for LPAs, and the relationship between local policies and national advice as principal considerations in appeal cases has caused a great deal of uncertainty and ambiguity. Finally, suggestions are given as to how local planning procedures can be improved in development control decisionmaking in the future under the provisions of section 54A of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act.

In previous research on economic policy in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, the author found that the primary determinant of economic policies and their outcomes appeared to be powerful organized interest groups, with differences in governmental institutions having little apparent impact. The ideologies of Thatcherism and Reaganism contributed to the reduction of the role of government and established conservative agendas, but left their postwar welfare state programs intact. This study of economic policymaking in the three countries since the mid-1980s confirms the ‘new institutionalist’ position in political science that institutions—government organizations, political parties, and electoral systems—do matter. Interest groups are also crucial, but they are not as determinative as previously argued. Ideology can be critical, but the influence of ideology is neither pervasive nor continuous. Strong, forceful, goal-directed leadership can also play a vital role.

Redistribution of resources through central–local government grant systems is justified as fiscal equalization, the subject of a substantial literature, underpinned by normative assumptions and a rational-synoptic model of the policy process. Goals are known and policy outcomes are measurable. In Britain and France, this approach is not helpful to understanding. Theories of fiscal equalization are problematic and inconsistent. There is no agreed territorial welfare function against which outcomes can be assessed. A politically based interpretation sees grant allocation as part of intergovernmental politics, in which conceptions of fiscal equalization are used largely for legitimation. Politics guides decisionmaking and the main test of policy applied by governments is political acceptability. The two cases of Britain and France do show important differences in intergovernmental politics. In France, change is incremental and negotiated. In Britain it is radical and unilateral, though outcomes often fall short of expectations as policy is modified in implementation.

The urban literature has devoted increasing attention to cross-national comparison of urban change and governance. What is lacking, however, is the development of conceptual frameworks that are adequate to embrace the greater variation in conditions encountered in cross-national research, compared with conditions within a single country. Without such a framework, comparison remains an exercise in depicting unique and unrelated cases. Urban regime theory holds potential for explaining the variety of arrangements through which policymakers in cities have coped with change, because of its sensitivity to local conditions and local actors. Its essential contribution is to focus attention on the collective action problems that have to be overcome for effective urban governance to emerge. The nature of the collective action challenge varies according to the purpose, composition, and position of potential regime partners. Substantial differences in motivating factors must be taken into account in order to apply regime analysis cross-nationally. Drawing upon differences already identified in the regime literature, the authors propose a typology of organic, instrumental, and symbolic regimes.

In this paper the author considers whether central authorities should regulate local sector borrowing. Local government's debt policy is modeled as the outcome of a two-period game between three agents: Central government, local government, and a bureau which produces services on behalf of local government. A key assumption of the model is that neither central nor local government is able to undertake long-term budget commitments. Two rationales are found for central regulations. First, local government is prevented from using deficits strategically to extract higher grants from central authorities. Second, the debt limit gives credibility to local government's budget policy towards the bureau.

Recent review articles in environmental policy have called for more rigorous cross-national tests and for better integration with the standard literature on comparative politics and political economy. In this paper we take a first step in that direction, examining the relationship between air pollution and left party strength in seventeen OECD countries. Despite theoretical salience and political relevance, we know of no previous attempt of this sort. Three competing hypotheses exist. First, because of an historic agenda which emphasizes maximum employment and material welfare for the working class, left party strength might be associated with lower than normal environmental quality. Second, given the belief in government intervention to socialize the negative externalities of market capitalism, left party strength might motivate higher than normal environmental quality. Third, despite observed variations in agenda setting, policy formulation, and implementation, skeptics have often replied, “different styles, similar content”, suggesting no party relevance at all. Our analysis, controlling for quantitative energy consumption and qualitative economic structure, reveals a moderate but sustainable inverse relationship between left party strength and per capita levels of air pollution. In the conclusion we speculate how and why this result might occur.

The literature about the consequences for welfare states of the economic developments of the last twenty-five years has tended to emphasise country differences. In contrast, interpretations of developments in social housing focus much more on similarities, with privatisation often being viewed as the common policy response. The author uses longitudinal data for thirteen countries to examine whether social housing is actually different in this respect. The analysis shows that, whereas in some countries there has been a reduction in social housing's share of total housing production, in other countries there has been an increase. These international differences are not explained by different demographic and economic developments. The author offers alternative explanations.