Law, Politics, and Local Democracy

Abstract

More than any other area of the British constitution, local government has undergone constant change over the past two decades. The Conservative legislation introducing compulsory competitive tendering, replacing rates with first the community charge and then the council tax, the structural reorganization of local councils (with the creation of unitary authorities), and the increasing emphasis on rights for users of local services have left an enduring legacy. The actions of some local authorities on the municipal left and the New Right have tested the legal limits of local democracy to the full. The new Labour government has initiated further changes with the ‘best value’ regime, the reform of executive structures, and by introducing elected mayors and cabinets in local authorities, and new powers for councils to become ‘community leaders’, working in partnership with other public, private, and voluntary bodies within their areas. Moreover, other aspects of the constitutional reform programme, especially devolution, have substantial implications for local government. This book assesses these and other developments in terms of the underlying questions they raise about the nature of local democracy and its legal recognition. The book considers the competing and legally interlocking claims of local representative democracy, financial accountability, and consumerism, and their implications for the governing structures of local authorities and for local electors, councillors, taxpayers, the users of local services, and council employees. Finally, it asks whether the legal shape and powers of local government fit it for the changing role it is now asked to play.

Local Autonomy, Local Democracy and the ‘New Localism’

“…It is impossible to discuss local politics without acknowledging that local government exists in its current form and with its current powers because parliament allows it to (Wilson and Game, 2002; Byrne, 1992; Stoker, 1991). Thus, the principle of ultra vires and the conceptual, as well as legal, constraints that it imposes on local authorities is important in understanding the limits to autonomy that exist within the British system of government (Leigh, 2000). Even in federal systems, sovereignty is often carefully proscribed such that local self‐government is greatly weakened by reference to higher authorities.…”

Local Authorities and the Accountability Gap in a Fragmenting Schools System

“…A presumption of parental choice, backed up by a right of appeal, was undermined both by the statutory grounds for refusal, based primarily on efficient education or efficient use of resources, and the application of published admission criteria. Moreover, it is clear that school choice ‘operates in a less than perfectly responsive market’ in which the supply of state schools and school places is particularly inelastic, due primarily to the financial constraints imposed on local authorities and schools, and there is an ‘inherent conflict between choice and economy’ due to pressure to eliminate surplus capacity in the system. The greater impact on local authorities arose from the way in which schools were under competitive pressure to maximise enrolments due to per capita funding based on pupil numbers and, under a policy of ‘open enrolment’, admission authorities, namely LEAs or in some cases school governing bodies, had to admit pupils up to a school's physical capacity.…”

13 Evolution and Gestalt of the State in the United Kingdom

“…200 The model has been extended across the public sector more generally: a similarly inspired series of reforms have been introduced into the National Health Service, 201 and at the local level there has been a proliferation of agencies -urban development corporations, training and enterprise councils (now Learning and Skills Council), housing action trusts, further education colleges, grant-maintained schools (see now academies under the Academies Act 2010) -which have either been carved out from, or which deliberately by-pass, traditional local government structures. 202 Whatever the efficiency merits of these reforms, they have resulted in considerable fragmentation in government, leading to a recent concern over 'joined-up' government. 203 117.…”