The erosion of legitimacy

By the early 1950s the antagonisms and protests sparked by Abercrombie’s visionary designs for Edinburgh had been damped down. The 1953 Development Plan provoked no widespread public opposition. By the late 1960s, however, town planning was probably the most contentious issue in the city and the local political parties were split internally about what should be done. Such events confound any notions that the development of planning has been a steady and inevitable progression towards acceptability. How then can the shift from disinterested tolerance to hostile protest be interpreted?