Transforming Local Governance From

Drawing on the author's unrivalled experience and expertise in both research and policy-making, this important new book provides a systematic assessment of the changing nature of local governance in Britain and a conceptual framework for understanding the new governance of localities. The author analyzes in detail what New Labour has been trying to do to local governance and management and assesses how and why it has achieved only a mixed record of change. The book concludes by providing a vision of good local governance and an assessment of future challenges for research and reform.

Gerry Stoker is Professor of Politics, University of Manchester.

List of Tables, Figures and Boxes

xi

Acknowledgements

xiii

Introduction

1

(1)

A context of change

1

(2)

The argument of the book

3

(6)

The Emerging System of Local Governance

9

(19)

Beyond New Management: the emergence of networked local governance

10

(5)

Networked community governance: the organizational and structural ingredients

15

(7)

Beyond elected local government

15

(1)

Beyond overhead representative democracy?

16

(2)

The rise of multi-level governance

18

(2)

The search for fiscal fudges and value for money

20

(2)

Towards new governing processes

22

(4)

Conclusions

26

(2)

The Legacy of the Conservatives: Governance by Default

28

(20)

A changed institutional framework: making new governance structures

29

(4)

A reorganized local government

29

(2)

A tight financial regime

31

(1)

The rise of local quangos

32

(1)

New Public Management

33

(2)

The regulation of public services

35

(3)

The impact of the Conservative reforms on services

38

(3)

The problems of the world of governance created by the Conservatives

41

(2)

The Conservatives' neglect of local politics

43

(2)

Ending local government: the Conservatives stand accused

45

(2)

Conclusions

47

(1)

New Labour: Embracing Local Governance?

48

(21)

The three projects of New Labour: beyond the rhetoric of modernization

49

(5)

New Labour's critique of elected local government

54

(4)

Labour's vision of local governance

58

(4)

The reform agenda

62

(6)

Conclusions

68

(1)

Understanding New Labour's Reform Strategy

69

(17)

The contribution of grid-group theory

70

(4)

Control freaks, partners or bookies? Characterizing New Labour's approach to central--local relations

74

(3)

The ingredients of New Labour's lottery reform strategy

77

(4)

The making of the reform strategy

81

(4)

Conclusions

85

(1)

Improving Service Delivery under New Labour

86

(22)

Best Value: a review of its style

87

(2)

The response of local authorities to the Best Value regime

89

(5)

The rise and rise of inspection

94

(2)

Labour's second-term agenda for service delivery

96

(3)

Following up Comprehensive Performance Assessment: lessons from enforceability analysis

99

(7)

Conclusions

106

(2)

Democratic Renewal: Getting People to Participate

108

(18)

Electoral reforms

110

(2)

What lies behind low turnout?

112

(2)

More participation and innovative forms of consultation

114

(7)

Can democracy be engineered? What difference does officially sponsored consultation make?

121

(4)

Conclusions

125

(1)

Promoting Local Political Leadership

126

(27)

The established system of political management and the reform proposals

132

(4)

The case for reform: leadership suited to the challenge of networked community governance

136

(3)

The case against reform

139

(6)

The interest and institutional bases of resistance to the mayoral model

145

(3)

New Labour's compromised implementation strategy

148

(3)

Conclusions

151

(2)

Partnership and Joining Up in a Era of Multi-Level Governance

153

(22)

Mapping New Labour's institutional framework for local and regional governance

154

(6)

The devolution programme

154

(4)

No bonfire of local quangos

158

(1)

The burgeoning world of partnership

159

(1)

New Labour's centralizing implementation strategy for joining up: first-term mistakes

160

(4)

New Labour's competing visions of effective multi-level governance

164

(5)

The networked community governance model

165

(1)

The constrained discretion model

166

(3)

Multi-level governance: which way for New Labour?

169

(4)

Conclusions

173

(2)

Local Finance: Coming to Terms with Governance?

175

(17)

Governance and local finance

176

(2)

Moving beyond the established debate: four criteria for a local finance system

178

(6)

Choices over local finance facing New Labour

184

(4)

Moving to new universalism

184

(2)

A new localist solution?

186

(2)

Strengths and weaknesses of the options

188

(1)

Conclusions

189

(3)

The Challenge of Governance

192

(23)

Making history in challenging circumstances

192

(9)

The interpenetration of multi-level governance

193

(3)

Decline in public trust

196

(4)

The presence of flawed institutional legacies

200

(1)

Learning the new processes of governance

201

(6)

Meeting the change challenge of organizational change

202

(2)

How to manage the mix: combining governance strategies and coping with failure

204

(3)

Confronting the structural contradictions of governance

207

(7)

The dilemmas of governance through networking

208

(5)

Managing through the state: tensions and difficulties

213

(1)

Conclusions

214

(1)

New Labour and Local Governance: Unfinished Business

215

(14)

New Labour's reform of local governance: an assessment

216

(3)

Searching for a new localism: the limits to steering centralism

219

(3)

Why new localism matters

222

(2)

Choosing New Localism

224

(5)

References

229

(12)

Index

241

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Transforming Local Governance From Thatcherism to New Labour

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials