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Local government reform in Great Britain

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Reforming Local Government in Europe

Part of the book series: Urban and Research International ((URI,volume 4))

Abstract

Local government remains in a state of flux in Great Britain. Currently being “modernised” by the New Labour Government, it has been subject to radical programmes of reform for most of the last twenty years. The reform programmes of the Conservative (1979–1997) and New Labour (1997-) Governments are the focus of this chapter which will examine the kinds of reform strategy introduced by these governments, their goals legitimacy (democratic renewal), efficiency (reducing costs) and effectiveness (improving services/outcomes), and their consequences for localities. The strategies of the different administrations will be considered separately and then together in order to highlight the key themes and identify the continuities and differences in the two periods. Finally the chapter will consider the impact of contextual and structural factors on central government’s capacity to deliver reform to and through local government paying particular attention to the fact that Great Britain has no codified constitution.

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Authors
  1. Helen Sullivan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Political Science, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Norbert Kersting

  2. Department of Social Science. Institute for Political Science, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Angelika Vetter

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© 2003 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

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Sullivan, H. (2003). Local government reform in Great Britain. In: Kersting, N., Vetter, A. (eds) Reforming Local Government in Europe. Urban and Research International, vol 4. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-11258-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-11258-7_3

  • Publisher Name: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-8100-3958-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-663-11258-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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