Local government

Abstract

This chapter has considered British local government as a politically representative set of arrangements designed to ensure responsiveness to the demands of local citizens. It has also outlined the constitutionally subordinate nature of local government to central control, but indicated that this need not be the only constitutional settlement available between the localities and the centre. This chapter has investigated the role of political parties in local government and the wider political process of local democracy as they are enacted through local councils. As well as a political process, it has considered local government as a set of institutional relationships between citizens, the centre and the EU. It has also discussed the main elements of the government’s modernising agenda. This chapter has also emphasised the politically dynamic nature of local government, which exists not only as a means of providing services - important though that may be - but also as a means by which the will of local people can be expressed and realised.