Notes on the comparison of territorial governance systems

Luigi Mazza’s 2003 Italian article, “Appunti sul disegno di un sistema di pianificazione”, has unintentionally exerted a significant influence on the comparison between European planning systems. The development of this comparison suffered until the 2000s from the lack of a conceptual framework. In his article, Mazza defines the territorial governance (or planning) system as an "institutional technology of government" useful for allocating land use and transformation rights. He distinguishes between two interrelated circuits through which the system interacts respectively with the government system, in a broad sense, and with the territorial production and consumption system. The combinations of planning and transformation control, distinct products of the two circuits, and the role consequently assigned to “discretional negotiation” determine the possible variety and effectiveness of technologies. The models of European systems – conformative, performative, and neo-performative – and the more recent typology of systems for public control capacity owe much to that insight.