What Should Planners Do to Address Unethical Political Pressure?

Abstract

This paper presents the case study of three planners who risked their jobs to oppose unethical political pressures in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It attempts to understand what was done by these planners to address those pressures and what lessons could we learn from their experiences. This research found that in a hostile political environment where unethical political pressure is strong, and voicing is of little help, unique actions of procedural planning (exit, deny-exit-and-expose, and defend), deontological in nature, may have to be adopted. If that is not adequate one should also consider de-communicating or manipulative actions, teleological in approach.

Keywords:

• Ethical planning practice
• political pressure
• planner’s ethical dilemma
• enforcement action
• political retribution

Notes

1. ROW is a strip of land owned by public authority for utility development and expansions such as strip land owned and reserved for road, sidewalks, landscape and future road expansion.

2. The regulation shows the width of the ROW for all the major roads in Kathmandu Valley determined in 1976.

3. The illegal developers had given two month notice to consult the planning authorities for further queries. The perpetrators were encouraged to demolish the illegal portion of their building at their own and they were also notified one week ahead of the demolition date.