ADMINISTERING CENTRAL-LOCAL RELATIONS, 1871-1919; THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD IN ITS FISCAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Christine Bellamy (Manchester Univeristy Press, Manchester, 1988: £29.95)
| Date | 01 March 1990 |
| Author | James Mitchell |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207679000500108 |
| Published date | 01 March 1990 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
ADMINISTERING CENTRAL-LOCAL RELATIONS, 1871-1919;
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD IN ITS FISCAL AND
CULTURAL CONTEXT Christine Bellamy (Manchester Univeristy Press,
Manchester, 1988: £29.95)
Contemporary debate on central-local government relations are placed in an
historical context in Christine Bellamy’s study of the English Local Government
Board from 1871-1919. As she notes late on in the book, there is no ’modem
comprehensive academic study of the Local Government Board. Nevertheless, it
has a decided reputation amongst students of the history of social and public
administration’. She considers and challenges this reputation and the
’conventional wisdom’ held by academics and sustained by official reports in the
1960s, that central-local relations developed from ’partnership’ to ‘agency’.
Disdain for an historical perspective on contemporary issues should not
prevent the importance of this work being recognised. The book’s themes might
have merited giving it a sub-title (or sub-sub-title) Continuities and Conflicts. As
Bellamy argues, the discussion of the Local Government Board has relevance
today: the basis of the pattern of controls used until the 1980s were set during the
period of her study; the frustrations of central government, even in the night-
watchman state, to impose its will was evident; and the dominance of the
generalist tradition in central government was an issue. Without entering the
debate on the nature of political research, there seems ample evidence from this
study of the value of an historical approach to understanding contemporary politics.
The study argues that the ’conventional wisdom’ is contingent on a flawed
understanding of past events. In particular, the argument is made that it is wrong
to assume that the centre will naturally seek to expand its authority over local
authorities. The ideology of ’local possessive pluralism’ is developed to explain
the context in which developments occurred. The distinction between private and
public...
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