The evolution of the urban planning system in contemporary China: an institutional approach

摘要

The institutional approach needs to be established as the new 'focus' for exploring changes and capacity-building in the planning systems in developing countries. This article analyses the planning system in China using institutional change theory. Ultimately, the political transition from a centrally planned system to a market system and related governance reforms were the basic drivers behind the evolution of the planning system in China. While top-down supply-induced institutional change in the planning system is still the most common, more recently bottom-up forces have increased dramatically, such as the growth of civil society, the appearance of the middle class and the increasing autonomy of local governments. Until recently, planning ideas and theories imported from Western countries have greatly influenced local plan-making in the context of globalisation. However, many traditions of socialist planning - for example, maintaining social control and generating economic growth - coexist due to path-dependence mechanisms and the gradual transition of the socialist political regime. There are new institutional barriers to capacity-building in urban planning in China, including political decentralisation and fragmented management, the weak role of planning legislation, growing leadership politics and insufficient citizen participation, as well as increasing social inequity.