Fencing Off
Wresting Urban Planning Autonomy through Institutional Constraints
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229292 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Saul Wilson (0000-0001-7939-0862, Australian National University), Li Hou (0000-0001-7336-804X, Harvard Graduate School of Design) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-16 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Affairs Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1078-0874 • E-ISSN: 1552-8332 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10780874261494800 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
How do municipal officials secure autonomy in a political system marked by steep hierarchy and frequent top-down interventions? We examine how urban planning technocrats and municipal leaders in China design institutions to protect planning decisions against interference from their bureaucratic superiors. We find that municipal officials sometimes sought to protect their flagship projects and avoid blame for corrupt plan modifications by carving out bounded institutional autonomy. They were able to carve out institutional autonomy by deliberately constraining their own discretion through “fencing off:” the selective outsourcing of strategically important planning decisions to (pseudo-)legislative bodies. By transferring authority to institutions stacked with sympathetic intermediaries, planners gain leverage to resist unwanted orders from above, expanding their autonomy to pursue the multi-dimensional objectives of urban planning. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative case study of Shenzhen, supplemented by two shadow cases from elsewhere in China, this study contributes to the scholarship on urban politics and governance by showing how technocratic autonomy can emerge from self-imposed institutional constraints, while advancing a coalitional approach to theorizing Chinese urban planning.
Inside Bureaucracy
City Limits
Planning for Growth
Political Parties and the State
Taking path dependence seriously
Understanding Blame Politics in China's Decentralized System of Environmental Governance
Embracing Uncertainty
From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism
Rule of Experts
Economy and Society
Territorial Urbanization and the Party-State in China
Irresponsible state
State Preemption in Theory and Practice
Planning Powers as Property Rights in Contemporary China
The Rise of State Preemption Laws in Response to Local Policy Innovation
Creatures of the State
The Politics of Blame Avoidance
Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics
The Landlord State
| Highly cited | No |
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