Reviving Local Democracy

A critical examination of New Labour's programme for the modernization of local government. Since 1997, the Blair government has sought to mobilize popular participation through local referenda, new political structures, electoral reform, and the creation of powerful new elected mayors. Through these mechanisms it is hoped that the lack of public interest and persistently low election turnouts will be overcome. The work draws on a wide range of survey data to relate the crisis of local politics and governance to wider changes in the political culture. Nirmala Rao goes on to evaluate the government's proposals to reverse decline, asking whether this programme of reform is likely to succeed. With the aid of a series of surveys of both public and councillor opinion, she offers an assessment of the realities which the democratic renewal project will have to confront in its implementation. The UK experience is compared with that of other western democracies and common themes and problems are identified.