000			01810pab a2200169 454500
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100			_aGame, Chris
245			_aBritain's `5 percent' local government revolution: the faltering impact of New Labour's modernization agenda
260			_c2002
300			_ap.405-17.
362			_aSep
520			_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.
650			_aLocal government - Great Britain
650			_aLocal government
773			_aInternational Review of Administrative Sciences
909			_a53869
999			_c53869 _d53869