British Local Governments in the New Labour Era

Authors : Abduladem Esmayl M LAZRG

Pages : 27-35

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Publication Date : 2019-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :After the election victory of the new Labour Party led by Tony Blair in 1997, the process of establishing a new system based on the devolution of authority started in the United Kingdom. Along with this process, a sui generis system, which can be called the regionalised state model, has developed in the United Kingdom. This system envisages regional governments as a new level between the central state and local governments. However, local governments constitute the most fundamental level of local democracy and decentralisation. This study focused on how a transformation was initiated with the New Labour governments as well as an overall assessment of the British local government system. In this respect, the historical background of local governments in Britain was touched on to place the argument in a historical context. Then, the structure was elaborated on without falling into the “trap” of structure/agency problem since this kind of presumptions usually limits the comprehensiveness and peculiarity of the research in question. Finally, the New Labour Party’s local election 2006 manifesto was evaluated.
Keywords : local government, Britain, New Labour, local democracy, governance