Local Government and Strategic Choice

Local Government and Strategic Choice, Second Edition discusses decision-making in local government, in particular, to those more strategic levels of choice which tend to be linked with the terms 'planning' and 'policy-making.' This book is organized into four parts. Part I centers on an appraisal of planning in a major local authority. Part II details the nature of the planning process in any governmental setting and the characteristic types of operational and organizational problem to which it gives rise. Parts III and IV use the medium of case examples to suggest how the planning process can be made more effective, first through the development of an appropriate technology of choice, and secondly through the adaptation of organizational forms to allow the technology to become a workable instrument of democratic control.

Foreword to this Edition Page The Origins of the Book Acknowledgments Synopsis Part I An Appraisal of Planning in a Major Local Authority 1 An Introduction to Coventry and Its Council 2 Four Years of Planning in Coventry 3 Planning and the Mechanisms of Decision 4 Information and Uncertainty in Planning References for Part I Part II Planning: A Process of Strategic Choice 5 The Nature of Planning 6 The Operational Problems of the Planning Process 7 Planning in Its Organizational Context References for Part II Part III Towards a Technology for Strategic Choice 8 An Approach through Case Examples 9 Case One: Land Allocation in a Redevelopment Area 10 Case Two: Priorities within a Changing Town 11 Case Three: Strategy for a Sub-Region 12 A General Appraisal of the Technology References for Part III Part IV The Organizational Challenge 13 Organizational Choice in Local Government 14 A Case Example in Organizational Choice 15 Prospects for Public Planning References for Part IV Postscript Supplementary bibliography Index