>>1251630I take it from your post that you are not from the United States. I would argue that planning in the United States is very different due to the cultural distrust of experts, academics, and government. You can see it in the anti-intellectualism and disbelief in simple scientifically backed ideas like global warming. Planning in the United States is much more local than other parts of the world. National planning doesn't really exist, state-wide planning is very limited to mostly highway projects, and you can count on one hand the number of metropolitan areas with a strong regional government.
Planning will vary wildly depending on the region or state you live in and in some communities the people have all of the power. In my neighborhood any building must first be approved by the neighborhood community organization which is made of volunteers elected by other community members. Then the plan goes to the planning commission (which is made of appointed volunteers from the entire city) and then to the city council. Projects are almost never approved over the community organizations's disapproval. (Maybe once every 10 years).
Sure some public participation processes are a sham and done to complete a check box only but the community has a huge amount of power in most of the United States.
