Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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planning toward expertise and technically based decision making. Hayek believed such a
tendency is "subversive of both liberty and democracy." 26
Many non-Western countries have blindly adopted physical aspects of Western
planning. This is largely due to these countries governments' need to shift from rural,
traditional economies to modern, diversified economies, as they engage their societies in an
irrevocable process of industrialization. Hie reliance on the mostly technical Western
planning paradigms was largely to protect these states' allocation and investments, for
national development programs enlist enormous national resources, a task which is hardly
sustained without such expertise. John Dyckman et al states, "What is most commonly
expected of the Western planning expertise are the qualities-speed, order, efficiency,
organization, structure, accountability- which lenders, donors and local leaders find
missing in their indigenous management practices. In many countries this is what is meant
by 'modernization.'" 27 Due to its complex technical paraphernalia and elegance, lay
citizens, bureaucrats, and politicians commonly defer to Western planning, though a
profession born within the neoclassical economics. At home, neoclassical economics has
been criticized for its tendency to exclude issues from legitimate political considerations. In
addition, it has been argued that neoclassical (standard) economics encourages a sanguine
view of the status quo and disseminates the comforting illusion that the market is capable of
effectively reflecting the aspirations of the sovereign actors 28
II. PLANNING PROCESS, POLICY MAKING AND URBAN PLANNING IN SAUDI
ARABIA
At best, the planning model of Saudi Arabia resembles the 'synoptic planning'
approach. Urban development in Saudi Arabia is shaped by several factors, one of which
is urban planning, an apolitical activity performed within a given agenda sealed from public
scrutiny. The planning process in the Kingdom is a projection of the central government'
political character. Policy formulation and decision making also fall within the purview of
the bureaucracy, a complex organization encompassing twenty three ministries all which
affect the urban process to various degrees. The King presides at the top of the
bureaucracy which deals with the application of fixed rules to cases. The application of
these top-down decisions has resulted in the production of urban forms that share similar
features, the grid iron layout, rectangular land subdivisions, and utter lack of relevance to
the physical environment, among others. All in all, the Saudi urban planning model is a