Regional Planning: What can we do before midnight strikes?

Nowadays, regional planning at the national level is present in most attempts at social change both in developed and developing countries. The author criticizes the lack of a suitable methodology for conducting the planning process at the level of any given region, emphasizes the limitations, deriving from the degree of openness and relative smallness of the regions, as regards their impact on decision-making, and proposes a process of regional planning which gives prominence to the political aspects associated with the strengthening of regional bargaining power both with the central government and with other institutions outside the region. In proposing a process of “negotiated” planning, the author puts the case for utilizing this process as an instrument for strengthening the democratic structure of society.