URBAN-PLANNING AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL STATE - THE VIEW FROM VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

It is argued that the state in Victoria, Australia, has pursued five k ey trends in urban planning throughout the 1980s: privatisation, liber alisation, subsidisation, commercialisation, and elitism. These trends are a response to conditions wrought by global economic restructuring , the dominance of economic fundamentalism as a political discourse in Australia, the institutional structure of federal-State government fi nancial relations, and a resultant perception of fiscal crisis. These developments in urban planning have resulted in financial costs and a loss of democratic accountability to the Victorian community.