The challenges of mainstreaming local government

Mark Sandford

Local Government Studies, 2024, vol. 50, issue 6, 1008-1017

Abstract: Although local government has faced huge challenges – even challenges to its existence and its rationale – since Local Government Studies was established, the journal has survived and flourished. From an external perspective, however, the discipline of local government studies seems to remain the Cinderella of political science in the UK. Only a few specialist study centres exist; modules within political science courses are few and far between; the flow of new textbooks has almost entirely halted. This marginal status reflects the status of local government within UK political culture. The UK’s political system tacitly conceives of local government through the ‘benefit model’ – a multi-purpose service deliverer, funded by fee and subsidy. It lacks the dimension, more visible in many other European countries, of local government as an expression of citizenship and democratic choice. In turn, ‘local government policy’ typically comprises a collation of second-order concerns, hemmed in by central accountability mechanisms. Can the discipline provide the intellectual foundation for a shift in this culture, to complement any jump in status for local government within UK politics?

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03003930.2024.2407902 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:flgsxx:v:50:y:2024:i:6:p:1008-1017

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/flgs20

DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2024.2407902

Access Statistics for this article

Local Government Studies is currently edited by Helen Hancock

More articles in Local Government Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().