Abstract
This chapter is not intended to provide either a definitive description of changes in the management of local services, nor an exhaustive analysis of those changes. Instead, its principal aim is quickly to review the findings of a large fieldwork research project in health care, education and public housing in order to pick out the major trends in decentralization and devolution between the various levels of government. These trends will then be interrogated against the following questions:
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a.
How can we best describe the broad pattern of decentralization, devolution and countervailing centralization that has taken place?
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b.
What evidence is there of the effect of the latter reforms on the productivity and quality of the services in question?
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c.
What have been the implications of these changes for the overall pattern of public accountability within the UK system of government?
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Pollitt, C., Birchall, J., Putman, K. (1998). Decentralization in an Inter-Governmental Context: The UK Experience of Managing Local Service Delivery. In: Halachmi, A., Boorsma, P.B. (eds) Inter and Intra Government Arrangements for Productivity. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2864-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2864-4_2
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