Book Review: Citizens, Consumers and Councils
| Author | George A Boyne |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473949201200111 |
| Published date | 01 March 1992 |
| Date | 01 March 1992 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Teaching Public Administration: Spring 1992 (Special Issue) vol.XII
no.l
pp.98-103
Book Reviews
Citizens, Consumen
IIlJd
Councils.
By
JOHN GYFORD. (London: Macmillan,
1991, pp.215, £9.99.)
In local government in
the
last
decade few
cries
have commanded as much
attention
as
'get
close
to
the
customer'.
The Local Government Management
Board and,
to
a
lesser
extent,
individual authorities, have
embraced
such
management
maxims with gusto, largely under
the
influence
of
Peters
and
Waterman's
portrayal
of
successful
private
companies in
the
USA.
In
this
book John Gyford surveys
'the
initiatives which local
authorities
have
launched in
their
attempt
to
make
their
services
more
participatory,
more
responsive and
more
accessible
to
members
of
the
public' (p.52). The
introductory
chapters
set
the
scene
with a discussion
of
issues such as
the
identity
of
'the
public', and
the
social and economic pressures which have
produced a
more
fragmented and demanding public in local areas.
The main
chapters
of
the
book provide a wealth
of
interesting
detail
on
three
topics.
First,
development in participation in housing, education,
the
personal
social
services
and planning. Second, procedures for public consultation on
'women's issues',
racial
equality and economic development. As well as
the
conventional consultative mechanism
of
creating
a
committee,
this
chapter
outlines procedures such as
the
presentation
of
petitions and
the
use
of
opinion
polls. Third, schemes
to
improve information and access
to
council services,
for example by decentralisation, public relations and marketing.
The book ends by
attempting
to
link
these
developments
to
wider changes in
the
role
of
local government. Councils' relationships with
the
informal
voluntary and
private
sectors
are
considered, and
three
'models
of
change'
are
outlined:
the
public as shareholders, customers and citizens.
It
is a pity
that
this conceptual framework is not established
earlier
-
it
would have helped
to
bring some
order
to
the
descriptive chapters.
In
the
absence
of
such a
framework a survey
of
current
initiatives
can
become
trite.
For
example, on
p.106
it
is
stated
that'
the
overwhelming majority
of
people
are
likely
to
prefer
local government services
that
match
their
needs and
circumstances'.
The
reader
is
left
to
ponder what
the
minority
prefer.
The conceptual
framework
at
the
end
of
the
book could also have been used
to
evaluate
local
initiatives,
rather
than
simply
to
catalogue them.
Despite
these
shortcomings, this is a useful book which deserves a
place
in
libraries and on
student
reading lists.
It
also provides a good basis for
other
authors
to
proceed
to
analyse
whether
the
initiatives described by John Gyford
have
actually
improved
the
quality
of
local democracy and
service
provision.
In this
context
it
is worth remembering
that
several
of
Peters
and Waterman's
'excellent'
private
companies have subsequently performed poorly.
Department
of
Business and Administrative Studies
The Polytechnic
of
Wales
98
GEORGE A BOYNE
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