Public Services, Quangos And Women: A Concern For Local Government
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00112 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Author | Liz Sperling |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
PUBLIC SERVICES, QUANGOS AND WOMEN:
A CONCERN FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
LIZ SPERLING
The past eighteen years have witnessed a shift in the locus of much public sector
service provision from elected and heavily regulated local government to the more
opaque, appointed sector of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations
(QUANGOs). This shift has been the basis of much debate about the nature of
democratic accountability and whether the users of public services are empowered
by such decentralization. What has yet to be considered is how the displacement
of local authority representation and service delivery may affect different groups
of service users. This article is concerned with such issues in relation to women
as consumers of public services who, from genuine political as well as expedient
motivations, have been relatively well represented by local authorities. The concern
here is that as decision making moves away from public view, the need to be seen
to accommodate difference is lost, and representative diversity will suffer.
INTRODUCTION
Since the 1980s, Britain has seen an inexorable fragmentation of the state,
its institutions and functions. The exponents of the ‘rolling back’ of the state
first, and most ardently, targeted local government as a source of unwieldy
bureaucracy and politics without accountability. Thus compulsory competi-
tive tendering, was introduced, various opt-outs from local authority con-
trol and a plethora of quasi-autonomous organizations to provide for better
and more economic services, and to empower individual service users by
making providers more accessible and accountable. However, for particular
groups of service users, local government had proved unusually committed
to representing and attempting to meet their needs. For example, in 1982
the first local government women’s committee was established in London;
and other local authorities following this lead thereafter. The establishment
of women’s initiatives in local government ensured at least some consider-
ation of women’s needs across a range of service areas. As a result of the
fragmentation of local government, such co-ordinating initiatives may be
lost and this could undo much of the work undertaken since the 1980s to
ensure representation of women’s service needs in decision-making and
implementation processes.
Liz Sperling is a Lecturer in the School of Social Science at Liverpool John Moores University.
Public Administration Vol. 76 Autumn 1998 (471–487)
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1998, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 IJF, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA
472 LIZ SPERLING
In 1993, William Waldegrave, then Chancellor to the Duchy of Lancaster
and, as such, responsible for public appointments, described decentraliz-
ation of decision making and implementation of public services as a ‘demo-
cratic gain’. This response to a parliamentary question on the status of
quangos referred to the relatively small number of organizations that are
recognized by government under the banner of non-departmental public
bodies (NDPB). These organizations perform executive or advisory func-
tions on behalf of government while not being of government (Pliatzky
1992) and can be seen in the context of the Conservative government’s com-
mitment to individual citizens’ rights, as smaller often locally based organi-
zations take responsibility for service delivery, accessibility and responsive-
ness to consumers increases and the service deliverer thereby is rendered
more accountable. The assertion that quangos provide a ‘democratic gain’
has been challenged on a number fronts: with regard to the undemocratic
selection of members of quangos; the lack of effective structures for scrutin-
izing quangos’ memberships and performance; and the secrecy surround-
ing quangos which restricts access to information on the work, and mem-
bership, of quangos (Wright 1995; Holland 1981; Weir and Hall 1994;
Wilson 1995). Thus the opacity of quangos compared to the elected echelons
of the state is indicated. The concept of decentralization is also questioned
by analysts as the direction of accountability, far from being traced to the
consumer, can often be observed meandering towards government (Weir
and Hall 1994, p. 13).
At local government level the responsibility for services such as training,
local economic development and urban regeneration, schools, further and
higher education, housing and policing has shifted to quangos. Other ser-
vices, such as health and utilities, that left the purview of local government
in earlier reorganizations have also been subjected to ‘quangoization’ in
recent years, which impacts on local communities. They are thus relevant
to the consideration of representation and quangos in the context of this
article. The debate surrounding the shift in locus to quangos from local
government has tended to revolve around the problems of local democracy
and the democratic control of appointed boards (Stewart, Green and Hog-
gett 1995): However, an issue that has not been widely covered is how
services are affected by moving responsibility from local government to
non-elected, small quango fora. While the representation of ‘disadvantaged’
groups, such as women, ethnic minorities and disabled people, has been
considered in terms of their numerical representation on quangos (Stewart,
Green and Hoggett 1995, p. 40; Local Government Information Unit 1994;
Outer Circle Policy Unit 1979; Wright 1995, p. 16), no consideration has
been given to the relationship between this shift towards quangos and ser-
vice delivery on behalf of these groups. Moreover, no work has been under-
taken to compare the different relationships of local government and
quangos to the communities they serve.
This article considers women’s representation on quangos, using local
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1998
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