Free market environmentalism and the limits of land use planning

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of an approach which questions the view that market institutions are inferior substitutes for government planning in the environmental sphere. Often known as free market environmentalism, this approach argues against the assumption that governments can ‘correct’ for various imperfections within the market system and puts forward a positive case for relying on ‘imperfect’ market processes in order to improve environmental quality. The paper outlines the principal components of free market environmentalism in order to develop a critique of arguments advanced in favour of enhancing the role of statutory land use planning. The analysis suggests that whilst markets are far from perfect institutions, free market environmentalism presents a powerful case for relying to a much greater extent on competitive market processes as an alternative to the regulatory state. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.