Councillors’ Perspectives on Democratic Legitimacy in English Local Government: Politics Through Provision?

Date
2014-05-22
Authors
Copus, Colin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor and Frances
Peer reviewed
Yes
Abstract
Much has been made of the dual polity concept of local government. By comparison less has been made of conceptualising local government’s dual purpose role. The political and service provision roles of local government tend to be kept separate for purposes of scholarly investigation. Local government is synonymous with service provision, but its governing role is often overlooked or down played by higher levels of government. Is local government as a politically representative institution merely a quaint and unnecessary hangover from the past? The paper reports the findings of research conducted among councillors and assesses their perspective on the legitimacy of local government to make decisions and to govern locally.
Description
Project also involved researchers from: Sweden, Norway, Germany and The Netherlands The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Keywords
Legitimacy, councillors, public services, local government
Citation
Copus, C. (2014) Councillors’ Perspectives on Democratic Legitimacy in English Local Government: Politics Through Provision? Urban Research and Practice, 7 (2), pp. 169-181
Research Institute
Local Governance Research Centre (LGRC)