The managerial turn and municipal land-use planning in Switzerland – evidence from practice

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) reforms are intended to increase efficiency and support a more managerial approach to public problems. This paper examines how NPM-type reforms have led to the growing influence of finance and real-estate departments in local level planning in Switzerland. Drawing on over 50 interviews, the paper maps the growing influence of flexible private-law or incentive-based instruments as complements to more binding instruments (typically zoning) in land-use planning practices. NPM reforms have prompted a renewed interest in public property, forcing municipalities to position themselves in relation to the necessity to sell or retain public land. The results show that NPM has affected practices of land-use planning in Switzerland, but the outcomes are more complex than a one-to-one takeover and there is variation across the country. The Swiss case study helps extend the wider international debate about NPM and planning. This paper highlights the complex impacts of managerialism on planning reform as well as ongoing tensions between increased efficiency in plan implementation and public scrutiny.

Keywords:

• Managerial turn
• property rights
• land policy
• policy instruments
• New Public Management
• Switzerland

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to the different local authorities who kindly agreed to answer my questions. Thank you also to three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

This paper is an output of a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant number PZ00P1_131862].

Notes

1. IPSAS stands for International Public Sector Accounting Standards.