Abstract
Institutions are among the most important elements of any spatial planning system. Stable institutions are a sign of stability which is reflected in a territory and in cities. Among the institutional theories that can be applied for spatial planning the theory of historical new institutionalism is applied in this paper. It is necessary to have adequate institutions at different territorial levels from global to local what is the topic of multi-level governance theories applied to spatial planning. The main national institution for the field of spatial planning in Serbia has met in the first quarter of the twenty-first century a few institutional transformations which have an impact at all territorial levels and they are also dependent on trends at other levels as well as on legal provisions.
Keywords: institutions, spatial planning, multilevel governance