A More Balanced View
| Published date | 01 December 1951 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1951.tb01424.x |
| Date | 01 December 1951 |
VOLUME
XXIX
-
WINTER
195r
Public
Admini
s
t
r
at
i
on
A
More
Balanced
N
recent years there has been a
I
much too ready assumption that
local government is inherently a less
efficient form of organisation than is
central government. Sometimes, but
not always, reasons are given for this
assumption. Sometimes
it
is thought
sufficient merely to point to the
existence of many small Authorities to
condemn local government as a whole
or as a general method of administra-
tion. On other .occasions the tactics
are to show that a particular local
service has a number
of
shortcomings
and then to infer that such short-
comings would automatically dis-
appear if the service were transferred
to the central government.
Recent events should help to
produce a more balanced view. Thus
it is clear that the hospital service is
not going ahead with the leaps and
bounds which the simple-minded
thought would be the inevitable con-
sequence
of
its transfer to the central
government. Indeed, there are many
signs that all is not well with that
service. The recent reports
of
the
Select Committee
on
Estimates and of
the expert Committee
of
the Institute
of
Hospital Administrators provide
much food for thought.
Two other recent examples may be
mentioned to show that the transfer
View
of a service to the central government
is not a certain guarantee that in
future everything will be perfect.
One
is
the increasing shortage
of
electricity generating capacity leading
to' large-scale cuts in, the winter
months. The other is the recent
announcement that the Valuation
Department of the Board of Inland
Revenue has had to suspend its
attempt to revalue all house property
for rating purposes.
There are,
no
doubt, good and
adequate reasons for the recent short-
comings of these three services.
It
is not for one moment suggested,
for example, that the electricity
supply position would have been
different had the Electricity Act, 1946,
not been passed. Nevertheless, there
is
a two-fold significance in these recent
happenings.
On
the one hand, if these services
were still with local government,
one cannot but feel that their present
difficulties would be used as a basis
for casting doubts
on
the general
merits of local government. Thus,
before their transfer,. the Local
Authority hospitals were criticised
for
their inadequacy.
It
was not thought
sufficient to point out that most of
these hospitals had been part of the
poor law until
1930,
that hardly had
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