Evolving institutions: an international exploration into planning and law

This article explores the interrelationship between planning and law from an institutional point of view. Interest in institutions and general norms in the social and behavioral sciences has led to interdisciplinary cross-pollination. Theories of planning and law occupy a special position because they are rooted in practice. In practice, the main concerns are how institutions are validated in daily policies and how the meaning of institutional norms may change in the course of action. This article addresses how institutions evolve in the practice of planning and law. General norms are evoked, and may be given new meanings, when problems and social conflicts arise. The author investigates how this process plays out in various systems of planning and law. He contrasts the induction of norms in Anglo-Saxon systems to the deductive reasoning behind the German system and discusses the pattern of political "self-limitation" in the Dutch system