The Political Culture of Planning provides the definitive guide to land use planning for both students and professionals. J. Barry Cullingworth provides a comprehensive and accessible account of land use planning in the United States, with a unique comparative analysis of the planning process in Britain and Canada.

Cullingworth has written extensively on planning and has worked, lived and studied in each of the countries discussed. In The Political Culture of Planning, he sets land use planning into its cultural context and examines the latest legal and policy developments. The book synthesizes a large body of information to provide an in-depth survey of a complex field that is often difficult to define.

Cullingworth presents the main issues of land use planning in the United States--zoning, the primacy of local government, the constitutional framework, and the role of the courts. He explores the perennial issues of discrimination, financing of the infrastructure for new development, the process of negotiating zoning matters, and two issues of increasing significance--aesthetics and historic preservation. A series of broad-ranging essays examine land use planning in the United States, its institutional and cultural framework, and the reasons for its definitive character.

Despite its achievements, the American system of land use planning has failed to serve fundamental public policy objectives. The Political Culture of Planning examines the mainissue facing land use planning today--how to channel the forces of development into spatial forms which are held to be socially desirable. Drawing on his considerable experience in both Britain and Canada, Cullingworth explores the limited possibilities for the future of land use reform in the United States.