Policy making and planning for the port sector: paradigms in conflict

Policy making is a complex and diverse process—particularly in relation to the provision and location of port and port related infrastructure. The planning stage of port infrastructure, or indeed transport planning more generally, may be finalized only to experience policy failure as implementation of the planned facility cannot be successfully completed. When this occurs planning and implementation failure is invariably perceived to be driven by a political agenda and it is argued that ‘politics gets in the way’—that politics ‘distorts’ a scientifically rational planning process. Is it the case that politics ‘gets in the way’? Or that politics distorts a technical and scientific process? Or is it the case that planning constitutes only one part, but an integral one, of the policy process—a process that is inherently political? And if that is the case, can we legitimately separate the planning process from that of policy making? This paper discusses the fundamental differences between the planning and policy-making processes. It argues that transport planning is one element in a broader process of policy making which incorporates political and other social/economic/environmental elements. It will argue that planning is a fundamental part of the policy-making process and, if successful completion is to be achieved, it cannot be divorced from that process. The paper will provide a conceptual framework which will incorporate these apparently conflictual activities. This model, if adopted, is likely to enhance both the planning and policy-making processes.