Representation under Strain: the British Experience

The election of the Blair government in May 1997 marked the beginning of a new chapter in the long-running debate about the reform of local government in Britain. Issues of local authority finance and decision-taking are central to the government’s programme of ‘modernisation’. Options for local cabinets and for directly or indirectly elected mayoral systems, set out in the July 1998 White Paper Modern Local Government: In Touch with People (DETR, 1998), force a rethink of the roles that councillors play and of the kinds of people who stand for election to their local council. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.