Strategic Planning in the Public Sector

This note reviews some recent literature on the public sector application of strategic planning. The historical development of strategic planning in the private and public sectors is briefly reviewed, and the major concepts and attributes of the strategic planning process are described. Two major issues are discussed. One is the question of whether strategic planning is actually a new technique in terms of public sector application, or simply a restatement of older processes. The other is the question of the applicability of strategic planning to the public sector, which entails a debate about the fundamental similarities and differences between the public and private sectors.