Local Democracy Renewed?

Abstract

ABSTRACT New Labour's prescriptions for revitalising local democracy drew heavily upon academic analyses that emphasised the loss of power and legitimacy of local government, the need to reconnect local institutions of governance to the populace and to ensure that the dispersed powers of the successor institutions were coordinated locally through new procedures of community planning. The new arrangements have further weakened the power of elected local authorities and introduced a variety of agencies and partnerships which operate in a less public environment and which blur the channels of accountability that characterise representative democracy. Public participation initiatives often appear to be restricted exercises for limited executive led public involvement while more genuine and more independent local representative institutions such as parish and community councils have been sidelined.

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