The two faces of urban democracy in Britain

Abstract

British cities have a long history of civic pride and most of the trappings which might mark out the city as an arena of democratic politics; in particular, locally elected representative bodies with powers of determination. Strictly speaking, however, no sub-national units of governance in Britain have ever enjoyed autonomy in the organization of local affairs. This has never been so evident as over the last two decades or so, and nowhere has it been so evident as in Britain’s major cities. In this chapter, we look at developments in the ‘two faces of democracy’, what might be termed the ‘input’ side and the ‘output’ side, since the mid-1970s through to the mid-1990s in the six largest cities in Britain. Most of this period coincides with the four terms of (national) government by the Conservative Party; it is still too early to say anything definitive about the current Labour government’s perspective on the quality of life and the institutional character of politics in Britain’s urban centers.

I am indebted to Colin Rallings of the Local Government Elections Chronicle Centre, University of Plymouth for many of the data shown in Table 1 and Appendix 1.