A theory of institutional change: Illustrated by Dutch city-provinces and Dutch land policy Since the early nineties, planning theory has focused on the issue of institutional change. Not only does institutional change have clear bearings on processes of spatial planning, it is also, increasingly, seen as an object of planning. A core concept in the literature is the juxtaposition of 'institutional design' and 'institutional evolution'. Yet, in understanding processes and the role of institutional change, this dichotomy does not appear to be very helpful. We therefore propose a more encompassing perspective that includes both 'design' and 'evolution' dimensions, invoking various components from theories of policy change, inspired by the work of Kingdon. Our perspective tries to unravel, in particular, why, under seemingly comparable conditions, some cases show substantive institutional transformations while others do not. The paper briefly discusses two cases from the Netherlands to illustrate this point, namely the thwarted process of establishing city regions within the scalar fabric of territorial governance, and some instrumental changes in land policy in the Netherlands.

The production of our built environment involves many transaction costs. We want to avoid unnecessary transaction costs. Nevertheless, we hardly take account of transaction costs when considering different ways of organising the development process. The most important reason is probably the difficulty in identifying them. This paper shows why transaction costs are important and offers a method for identifying them. With this method, it is possible to compare the efficiency of different institutional arrangements.

On 1 July 2008 the`new' Dutch Spatial Planning Act (Wro) came into effect, replacing the old act (WRO) (1) from 1965 which had previously been revised only marginally a few times. With the introduction of the new act, the land-use plan (bestemmingsplan) was supposed to be reestablished as the most important legally binding land-use instrument and basis for building permits, with a view to creating greater legal certainty. Even though this had also been the aim of the previous act, many of the land-use plans had become obsolete (older than ten years) and building permits were often granted on the basis of exemptions from the land-use plan, rather than on the basis of the plan itself. The new act requires land-use plans to be up to date, and wants the use of exemptions to be brought down to a minimum. In addition, the act wants the land-use plan to resume its steering function. According to the explanatory memorandum of the Wro, the use of exemptions under the previous act had led to a development-led, instead of a plan-led, development-control system; which implies that development-control decisions are led by development proposals made by

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In the international literature and discussions on land management, Dutch land policy is often presented as a special case, sometimes even as a role model for other countries. However, in recent years this policy has come under pressure as a consequence of institutional changes in the housing market, the social housing sector, spatial policy and European competition rules. This paper intends to unravel these changes and their effect on Dutch land policy. It also reflects upon the implications of land policy changes for the effectiveness of spatial policy.

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