Politicians' impact on urban planning is not necessarily negative, as they may represent different interest groups in the city. When it is negative, it is often associated with corruption. Fighting corruption in planning is an important task. I wrote a paper on anti-corruption in Chinese urban planning (“Anti-corruption in Chinese Urban Planning"). It is availabel on RG.

I would add:

1. It important to reflect on the impact of ALL the various actors on urban planning, including developers and other business people and poor residents living informally, as they are pursuing different agendas and visions of urban life, and

2. Their influence is also a sign of the weakness of the state and rational, coherent, long-term planning.

3. All of which weakens democratic control of the city and undermines the supposed role of politicians as champions of the democratic will. That is, it helps explain why politicians can be a problem rather than the solution.

For more see our book Democracy Disconnected by Routledge, 2019.

I do not think we can marginalize the role of politicians

thank you Feng Frederic Deng

That is true when politicians are good and there is pressure on them, , Otherwise the political alliance with the influential people at the expense of the city and its inhabitants

Я думаю необходимо повышать роль общественных организаций и самих граждан в самоуправлении и планировании развитием городов! Внедряемые городские проекты по развити. городов должны обсуждаться публично с привлечением экспертов из других территорий!

thank you Laurence Piper

the rational, coherent, long-term planning ,Comprehensive planning is often a tool for politicians and influential people to pass their illegal interests

thank you Arwa Hazim

There must be ways to reduce the effects of the bad, not be quick to confirm, but there must be hope.

When the influences of politicians are negative, as they relied on specific agendas, developers, and elites when they have made their decisions, we should strengthen the roles of planners and public participation in the planning process. You can also have a look on these references.

- Sewell, WR Derrick, and John Terence Coppock. Public participation in planning. John Wiley & Sons, 1977.

- Innes, Judith E., and David E. Booher. "Public participation in planning: new strategies for the 21st century." (2000).

- Catanese, Anthony James. The politics of planning and development. Vol. 156. SAGE Publications, Incorporated, 1984.

- Vasu, Michael. Politics and planning: A national study of American planners. UNC Press Books, 2018.

thank you dear Dhirgham Alobaydi

This is true I agree with you, but unfortunately the owners of power and politicians are more organized than society .

thank you Лариса Шутько

I agree with you which is the best choice, though difficult, it is assumed that the community bears responsibility

They must be have assistant or staff whom well understand with city and regional planning schoolarly

That's right, Didin Kusdian I agree with you, but unfortunately there are a lot of methods that improve the city level, but they are contrary to the interests of politicians

Haji Saediman

I agree with you, but in developing countries their impact is often negative

Politicians in some cases have negative impact in planning the city as most of them do not have experience or knowledge of town and regional planning. Besides that, corruption is one of the most issues brought by politicians in planning

Urban planning and local politics are supposed to work together since planning involves everything that affects the city for good or bad ....(https://www.jstor.org/stable/23718581 )