Book Reviews
| Date | 01 January 1959 |
| Published date | 01 January 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1959.tb01199.x |
Book
Reviews
THE
MACHINERY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, by R. M. Jackson.
Macmillan
&
Co.,
1958; 30s; pp. 353·
THIS
is
an
undogmatic,
unemphatic
book, written in
an
easy style,
and
amongits
many
virtues is the author's willingness to state
both
sides of a case without shirk-
ing
the
task of coming to a conclusion, even though it
may
be tentative. Books
are
not
however, justified merely because they
are
sober in outlook
and
pleasant
in tone.
One
has to ask whether
the
book fulfils a genuine gap,
and
whether
the
author
has
anything
of
value to say on his subject.
Here
Dr. Jackson scores
heavily for his is a book for which we have long been
waiting--one
that
concerns
itselfless with
what
local government does
than
with the way in which it works.
In
other
words
the
book is
not
about
the services local government renders,
but
about
the working of
the
local government machine.
The
author
has thus been
able to devote agreater
part
of
his book to the more
permanent
aspects
of
local government
than
writers whose
main
aim is to describe the duties of
local authorities. For, whilst the services of local government
are
subject to
ever-changing techniques
and
legislation, the constitution
of
councils
and
committees, the relations of members
and
officers, the method of making
decisions or handling business,
the
machinery for financial control, for allotment
of
contracts
and
the
conduct of elections, continue from decade to decade in
much
the
same way.
In
fact, only in dealing with local government areas
and
with financial relations with
the
central government, is the book concerned
with
current
developments.
But to describe the services of local government is one thing; to give a
convincing account of how it works is a task of
another
kind.
The
former
can
be gleaned from documents: only participation in affairs
can
give
an
understanding
of
the
latter.
Here
again we
are
fortunate, for
Dr.
Jackson
has
had
practical experience of central
and
local government
both
in
England
and
in
the
developing countries. We have therefore
an
account
of
the
subject,
written from
the
broad
standpoint of
the
political scientist,
but
based on first-
hand
knowledge
of
the arts of electioneering, chairmanship
and
of
the
main-
tenance of
that
intangible member-officer relationship so
important
in English
local government.
The
temptation to
the
reviewer to take
up
some
of
the
interesting points of local government practice touched
upon
by Dr. Jackson
is strong,
but
it will be resisted here because readers of this
journal
will be
more
anxious to have some indication
of
the
relevance of the book to conditions
in the territories in which they labour.
The
mere fact
that
the
book is concerned
not
with duties
but
with structure
is
of
immense value, for whilst
much
of
the
technical
expertise
of
the
English
local government services is only of general interest to colonial conditions,
discussions
about
the
preparation
of agenda,
the
conduct of meetings,
the
con-
trol of expenditure, the training of officers,
are
not
only relevant
but
practically
helpful. Experience with visitors to
England
from developing territories suggests
that
they
find their sessions in committees, noting
the
processes of administra-
tion,
and
studying the member-officer relationship,
of
greater help
than
visits
to schools, clinics,
and
sewage works, which
are
usually on a scale dispro-
portionate to
the
services in their own areas.
41
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