Government Beyond the Centre
4 total works
This second edition provides a basic, straightforward and up-to-date introduction to British local government. Recent years have seen local government become an issue of high political salience and continuing financial and structural changes promise to keep it centre stage for some time to come. Placing recent events in context, "Local Government in the United Kingdom" provides a text for students encountering local government for the first time.
British Local Government into the 21st Century
by Gerry Stoker and David Wilson
Published 29 October 2004
What is the current state of local government in Britain and where is it going? Edited by two leading experts and with an all-star cast of contributors, British Local Government into the 21st Century brings together a set of specially-commissioned and tightly-edited chapters to provide a comprehensive assessment of the issues and challenges facing local authorities as they search for a new role in a new century.
This book examines the changing nature of local politics, drawing on the latest research from the ESRC Local Governance Programme. It assesses the emergence of new forms of elite organisations and changing power relations in the context of increasing roles for business and other partners. Public responses to changes in local governance are covered in depth including new forms of participation and protest. The book concludes with a consideration of the extent to which the emerging system of local governance can meet the social and economic challenges created by globalization.
Drawing on the author's unrivalled experience and expertise in both research and policy-making, this important new book provides a systematic assessment of the changing nature of local governance in Britain and a conceptual framework for understanding the new governance of localities. The author analyzes in detail what New Labour has been trying to do to local governance and management and assesses how and why it has achieved only a mixed record of change. The book concludes by providing a vision of good local governance and an assessment of future challenges for research and reform.