Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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Instead, the emerging system "is based on dual organization of the municipality and the
province. The most salient feature of municipal administrative system in the Near and
Middle East is the extensive scope of national control ." 20
From the previous review, it was made clear that, in the West, modern urban
planning materialized from the progressive and reform movements headed by politicians,
lawyers, philosophers, idealists and design professionals. Their efforts and views
culminated in the institutionalization of modern urban planning in the early decades of this
century. In the Western context, urban planning matured through subjugating its activity to
open debate in a favorable political environment. The urban planning profession has been
modified over time, incorporating socioeconomic considerations. According to John
Dyckman et al, planning practices
grew up with local government reform, and with the conviction that
such government could be made 'fairer' and more efficient by the
application of rational methods, by the strengthening of an
'impartial' professional bureaucracy and by liberal infusions of a
supposedly value-free science....This is strongly the case if
'rationality' is more broadly rendered to mean confidence that wellconsidered
means will be effective, and that the quality of
governance can be improved by the application of rational
methods. 21
Claus Offe, a German sociologist, distinguishes three processes of policy
formulation: (1) bureaucratic policy making (corresponding to Weber's ideal-type), (2),
policy making through interest group conflict and bargaining, and (3), policy making by
end-means rationality or planning. 22
Urban planning is a decision making process which
deals with the production of a "designated result such as a particular pattern of land use or
specific level of economic growth." 23 In the pluralist literature, planning is viewed as a
method of policy formulation which involves the coordination of means-ends relations in
line of defined objectives. This approach is rooted in the democratic character of the
"pluralist bargaining order-terms that refer to an idealized system of political decision
making, based upon plural sources of power, plural points of access to government, and
plural, competing interests." 24 On the other hand, 'synoptic planning' advocates the
making of decisions by intellectual problem solving. It was disparaged for being
inconsistent with democratic ideals, for it substitutes expertise opinion for public
participation. 25 Writing in 1944, Friedrich Hayek recognized the innate proclivity of