Metropolitan Planning Organizations: Findings and Recommendations for Improving Transportation Planning

With the enactment of the Intermodal Surface TransportationEfficiency Act in 1991, metropolitan planning organizations(MPOs) became more important institutions for planning and fundingregional transportation systems. This study attempts to assessthe success of MPOs in four fast-growing areas- Dallas/Ft. Worth,Denver, Phoenix, and Seattle-in meeting regional transportationneeds. The research identifies the criteria that distinguishmore successful from less successful MPOs-effective leadership,staff competence and credibility, quality public involvement,development of a regional ethos, streamlined and efficient processes,cooperative relationships with the state DOT, land-use coordination,and accountability to members–and offers suggestions forimproving transportation planning.     

Planning science and technology policy

Long-range policy planning for international scientific and technological affairs has been hindered by a variety of problems. One is the overall crisis-response nature of foreign policymaking and another is the difficulty of developing technical information needed for sound forecasts. Within the State Department the record of attempts to establish systematic planning amply demonstrates the problems. Nevertheless, a number of key conclusions can be drawn from the few successful experiments in policy planning: An effective planning staff should combine the skills of both foreign policy specialists and scientists; planners should be closely familiar with, but not involved in, operations; the planning role requires consistent support from senior officials; the power to influence budgets significantly strengthens the planning function.     

Planning theory as political practice

Howell S. Baum is associate professor, teaching planning theory, social planning, and organizational behavior at the University of Maryland Institute for Urban Studies and School of Social Work and Community Planning. He has done research on planning in bureaucratic organizations and is author of Planners and Public Expectationsand The Invisible Bureaucracy.He is completing a book on the experience of working in bureaucracy, Membership Without Intimacy.     

Planning and budgeting in Pakistan

Twenty years ago a pioneering study of planning and budgeting in Pakistan pointed to significant weaknesses. This article reviews the changes made subsequently to the formal processes and assesses how these are currently working. The planning agency is now a permanent organization. Planning and budgeting have been combined and these processes have moved closer to the centre of political power. On the other hand there are difficulties over linking planning and budgeting to the management of economic and fiscal policy; planning is geared to securing foreign aid funds; the planning processes favour large expensive projects which emerge from the more developed areas of the country and discriminate against the smaller projects with a shorter time horizon needed in less developed provinces–thus accentuating economic imbalances. Finally, although the importance of evaluation is recognized, in practice reporting and evaluation are not adequately practised.     

Strategic Nuclear Forces: Unrealistic Planning

The Department of Defense has embarked on a program of strategic modernization that will demand substantial budgetary growth for strategic forces—roughly 29 percent after inflation—during the 1990s. However, defense funding overall is unlikely to grow during the next several years. This article projects the funding that the Bush Administration's strategic modernization plans would demand, assesses the feasibility of these plans given budgetary limits, and describes some options which would reduce this funding.