1st Edition

Regulating Local Authorities Emerging Patterns of Central Control

Edited By Paul Carmichael, Arthur Midwinter Copyright 2003

    By examining the relationship between central governments and local authorities in a number of countries, the contributors to this study show how central governments exercise control and influence over the activities of local authorities.

    Central-local relations since the Layfield Report; intergovernmental relations in Scotland post-devolution; central grants and local spending in Britain; guide democracy or multi-level governance? New trends in regulatory regimes in central-local relations in the Nordic countries; central government over local government - a Western European comparison; central-local financial relations in South Africa; between rhetoric and reality - does the 2001 White Paper reverse the centralizing trend in Britain?

    Biography

    Paul Carmichael is a Senior Lecturer in Public Administratoin at the School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster Arthur Midwinter is Professor of Government at the University of Strathclyde.

    'A valuable contribution; not only for what is said, but also for the way in which it brings together different perspectives and for the ideas and questions it sets running.' - Michael Hughes, University of Bimingham in Local Government Studies

    '...the collection should benefit interested researchers and students, and it offers useful historical and international context for practitioners.' - David O'Brien in Political Studies Review