The Politics of Policy in Local Government

This book was originally published in 1973, at a time when most writers on local government saw local authorities as agents of central government. The few studies which recognised local authorities as policy-shaping bodies explained their activity by regarding them as responsible servants of the local electorate. In the first part of this book, John Dearlove presents a review of the established literature of the time on local government and the mainstream studies of public policy in political science. He argues that both traditions of literature are mistaken, local governments are seen as policy shapers, but their activity cannot be optimistically explained by theories focusing on electors. He also claims that theories which explain public policy by focusing on the impact of environment are inadequate in terms of the context of British local politics. In the second part of the study, the author illustrates these general points with reference to detailed research in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.