A path dependent systems perspective on participation in municipal land-use planning

Public participation in land-use planning cannot fully be understood without an equivalent understanding of the planning system supporting it. Too often, research lacks a prescriptive understanding of the legislator’s intentions. The right of the public at large competes with other and more specifically designed rights of stakeholders, neighbours, sector authorities, etc. Hence, an adequate understanding of public participation must reflect the general design of all participatory rights in statutory land-use planning. Such rights are often established and shaped through several generations of planning legislation, reflecting a wish to safeguard specific interests. In Norway, the safeguarding of property rights was a contingent occurrence. Other and more general participatory interests and the related rights in line with this, have subsequently been developed on this basis. This has created a path dependency in the design, content and relative strength of public participation relative to other and more specific participatory rights. In this article, public participation in Norwegian municipal land-use planning is analysed from such a path dependent systems perspective.