Modern Local Government is a unique assessment of local government reform from the perspective of both local and central government, which is fully informed an analysis of the role of the European Union. This text provides a systematic review of the reform of local government since the election of New Labour in 1997.

Parishes, Town Councils, and Neighbourhood Working

Parishes, town councils, and neighbourhood working

Introduction

There has been a long-standing debate within the United Kingdom about the issue of local democratic accountability. Although there is a tendency to consider that the United Kingdom is ‘overgoverned’ with too many tiers of government (an argument which was advanced both in the devolution debates 1997–1999 and in the English regions debate 2000 onwards), each citizen of the United Kingdom has fewer democratic representatives compared with citizens in other countries (Knox 2002). On the other hand, there have been continuing concerns about the number of recently established local bodies which do not have direct accountability to the electorate but rather to their own membership and to their sponsoring government department. However, locally based ...

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