Government Functional Place in Spatial Planning and Management within the Framework of Neoliberalism

Since the 1980s, with the ever-increasing superiority of neoliberalism views and declining government investment in public affairs, the functional and ownership roles of the government in the economy have diminished and the role of non-governmental institutions, companies and forces in managing and producing space has increased, which weakened the independent influence of government-affiliated institutions in the management and planning of the territorial space. The purpose of this study was to present a new classification of government functions and how to study it in the management and planning of the territorial space in the framework of the neoliberal perspective with reference to valid theoretical documents. This research is of theoretical type and the data were collected by documentary and library methods and analyzed by descriptive-analytical method based on inferential approach.

Since spatial planning is affected by profit-oriented economic motivation based on free trade, the government lacks an independent position and function in spatial planning management. In this regard, government institutions seek to expand and continue the cycle of making more profitable talented areas and facilitate the faster return of capital through tax policies and coordination with the wishes of companies and economic institutions only through spatial management planning. In the formulation of land management policies by governments in the neoliberal model, different regions in the subdivision of the land level do not have the same value in attracting capital, and spatial polarization in population, movement, and activity in the territorial space will always exist. On this basis, land management in the neoliberal model has led to the importance of the concept of leveling, ranking, and decline of the concept of spatial justice, which is considered in the Keynesian model in land management studies.