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Local government and democracy in Britain
Neil Barnett and J. A. Chandler
2026
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Local government in the UK is in crisis. The book argues that it is now neither local in terms of the geography and populations of its principal units, nor does it govern in these areas. Over the last two hundred years local government has been changed from a system in which local interests held governance over localities to one in which central government, national and multinational agencies, and corporate business increasingly dominate governance of local and community decision-making. These changes seriously undermine the important contribution that local government can bring to the effectiveness of democracy in the UK. The study provides an update on the structures and powers of local government since 2010. Despite change and austerity, a democratic hope still persists at the local level concerning local governments’ potential as a fundamental building block for democratic renewal. It is argued that the local remains a central arena of democratic practice, and that more direct forms of democracy should form part of a renewed democratic infrastructure. Following the ideas of J. S. Mill, the book also presents an argument that citizens have a right to participate in the government of their localities on issues that affect only their area, thus enhancing the capacity of citizens to become involved in understanding of our political culture.
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Keywords
- 1930s demands for larger authorities
- Aims of the book
- Austerity
- Autocracy in local government
- Banham Commission
- Cabinet government
- Can direct discursive governance meld with liberal representative democracy
- Central grants
- centralisation
- Changes to local autonomy since the late nineteenth century
- Combined authorities
- Community
- Consequence of change for democracy
- Contracting out
- Councillor
- COVID-19
- Critiques of liberal democracy
- Decline of district councils
- Democracy in local government
- Devolution of power
- Directly elected mayors
- Education services
- Effect of austerity
- Effects of industrialisation
- entrepreneurialism
- Executive mayors
- Expansion of unitary authorities
- G. D. H. Cole
- Hobhouse and the Webbs
- How central government determines the discretion given to local government
- How far can direct discursive decision-making be effective in theory
- innovation
- Innovation and entrepreneurialism in local government
- Innovation in local government
- J. S. Mill
- Lack of an ideological perspective and ethical theory to justify British centralism
- Liberal thought
- Local Autonomy
- local democracy
- Local government
- Local Government Act 2011
- Local government taxation
- localism
- Localism and democracy in parish government
- Neighbourhood Planning
- Neoliberalism and local agency
- New municipalism
- New scrutinising role of backbench councillors
- Police and fire services
- Policy concerning central–local relations post-2010
- Politics
- Post-1945 theorists
- privatisation
- Problems of democracy in local governance in the United Kingdom
- Right of decision-making in communities
- Right to local government
- Role of central government
- Self-interest of central political elites
- social services
- Squirearchy
- Status of councillors and leaders pre-2000
- Structure of each chapter
- Terminology
- thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
- thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPB Comparative politics
- thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPH Political structure and processes::JPHV Political structures: democracy
- Theorising autonomy
- Unitary Authorities
- Unitary authority
- Universal franchise in local government
- William Robson
Links
DOI: 10.7765/9781526150660Editions