Public Choice Theory and the Reform of Local Government in Britain: From Government to Governance

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Abstract
This paper describes and analyses current and ongoing reforms of British local government in a public choice framework. These involve a shift from a vertically-integrated corporate institutional form of direct service provision by British local government to one of an enabling function within a horizontally- coordinated network of multi-agency service provision. It considers a fundamental reappraisal of the form of democracy and the way in which it can be secured, a questioning of the behavioural characteristics of local government in relation to the public interest, a reinstatement of the public interest, a reinstatement of the rights and responsibilities of the individual and of the family, a reduction of local government's role in providing the welfare state and a preference for multiple solutions provided by agencies in place of monolithic provision by local government monopolies. Suchfunctional decentralisationis in marked contrast to thepolitical decentralisation in other European countries.

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