From Herbert Morrison to Command and Control: the Decline of Local Democracy and its Effect on Public Services

Things can't only get better

“…Alongside of this decline in democratic agency enjoyed by citizens, there has also been a decline in their ability to organise through other means. In the UK, for example, local democratic agency in the UK has been weakened by successive central government initiatives and this has had an impact on impact on public services (White, 2005). Further, under the neo-liberal political-economic paradigm, citizens' agency in pursuing social justice through unionising labour services has also been reduced.…”

Taking Local Government Seriously: Democracy, Autonomy and the Constitution

“…As a Local Government Ombudsman has asked, "[W]hy should people vote for organisations that have so little power to change things on the ground?" 85 This sentiment finds expression in empirical data: for example, reporting the findings of their research into the 2006 local elections, Hayward et al observe that "a large minority of respondents were in no way persuaded of the value of voting …, making the ongoing low turnout figures no surprise". 86 As Rallings and Thrasher point out, "The real key to higher turnouts at elections is engaging a greater proportion of the electorate, not simply making it easier to cast a ballot."…”

Decentralizing Health Services in the Uk: A New Conceptual Framework

“…As Campbell (1987, p. 177) has noted, the roots of this debate go back to the decisions made by Bevan in founding the NHS with a ‘[…] Minister ideologically disposed to centralisation and seduced by the claims of professional expertise’. Ever since, there has been a trend of thought advocating decentralizing the NHS (see, for example, Powell 1997; Hudson 1998) and while there has been some reassessment of the Bevan orthodoxy (Szreter 2002; White 2004), there has also been a strong trend towards centralization (for example, national pay agreements and central regulation). Current debates about the nature and organization of the NHS reflect this inherent local/central tension that has been present in the NHS since its foundation in 1948.…”