Reconstructing Decision-Making: Planning Versus Politics

The purpose of this article is to explore the role of politics in planning and the highly political role of planners. The structure planning process for Flanders illustrates that planners are an active force in enabling change and that political decision-making is a process of its own with its own actors. Interviews with key political actors allow unravelling the planning process from the perspective of the political class. The case brings powerful informal arenas to the open and documents power plays involving planners and politicians. The case also illustrates that much of the actual planning discourse is at odds with the rationale of some politicians.