Planning, Law, and Property Rights: A US-European Cross-national Contemplation

Globalization today encompasses multinational dialogues on the appropriate role for planning in mediating relationships between individual and community, state and citizen, government and market, and people and property. Yet confusion persists as speakers from one country attempt to convey concepts different from what listeners from another country hear. This paper provides a cross-national contemplation on the sources of that confusion, comparing the USA to Western Continental Europe, primarily Germany. Americans and Europeans engage fundamentally different worldviews in promoting progress while reconciling harms, stemming from different philosophical traditions that can be broadly characterized as a Millian versus a Hegelian liberalism, respectively.