1. DECISION-MAKING IN CENTRAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE ABSENCE OF POLITICAL MAJORITY.
- Author
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Wendt, Robin
- Subjects
ELECTIONS ,FEDERAL government ,COUNTY councils ,LOCAL government - Abstract
A possible outcome of the next general election is that no party will have a majority in the House of Commons, a situation experienced only briefly in recent central government. In local government, by contrast, more than half the county councils in England and Wales and many district councils have no overall political majority. Some have been so for many years. This paper examines the style of decision-making in one such local authority, Cheshire County Council, in terms of the roles of politicians and officials and the relationship between them. Recognizing the constitutional differences between central and local government, it goes on to discuss how much of this experience would be relevant to central government in the event of no overall parliamentary majority. The paper argues that many of the working practices developed in local authorities would be valid in a central government context, though they would not necessarily take the same form. To avoid value judgments, the absence of overall majority, whether in a local authority or in parliament, is referred to simply as ‘no-majority’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1986
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