01759pab a2200145 454500008004000000100001600040245011300056260000900169300001400178362000800192520130300200650003701503650002101540773005201561180718b2002   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aGame, Chris  aBritain's `5 percent' local government revolution: the faltering impact of New Labour's modernization agenda  c2002  ap.405-17.  aSep  aTony Blair's New Labour Party came to power in 1997 committed to `modernizing' and rejuvenating a local government system that it considered had been weakened and emasculated by the Thatcher and Major Conservative governments.  Written immediately following Labour's overwhelming re-election in June 2001, this article is an interim review of some of the key policies in the government's modernization agenda for local government.  The first sections deal with the indisputably radical political management reforms imposed on local councils and the attempt to introduce, for the first time in UK local government, directly elected executive mayors.  Later sections focus on the replacement of compulsory competitive tendering with a `best value' service regime, and the government's more hesitant approach to finance reform.  The overall conclusion of the review is that in all three policy spheres, though in differing ways, the government has so far fallen short of its ambitious and radical rhetoric.  The idea of elected mayors is enthusing neither the public nor elected councillors.  Best value is seen as excessively bureaucratic, prescriptive and centralist.  And modest reform proposals leave largely unaddressed the most serious financial weaknesses of UK local authorities. - Reproduced.  aLocal government - Great Britain  aLocal government  aInternational Review of Administrative Sciences