Institutional Preferences

Abstract

In this chapter we look at public views about the best institutions and mechanisms for delivering local services. Institutional preferences are linked to views about the aims and objectives of local governance. But institutional preferences are not dictated by views about objectives: the connection is a matter of choice rather than strict logical necessity. Support for no more than a minimal range of local public services does not, in fact, determine views about whether these services should be delivered by elected councils or by appointed boards. It is possible to oppose local socialism or local social democracy without opposing local political democracy. The connection between attitudes to purposes and to institutions is detectable but remarkably weak. So before we investigate that connection we shall focus our attention on the public’s institutional preferences for local governance as an important aspect of public opinion in its own right.