Reviews

Published date01 July 1968
Date01 July 1968
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1968.tb01205.x
REVIEWS
CENTRAL
DEPARTMENTH
AND
LOCAL
AUTHORITIES.
By
PROFESSOB
J.
A. G. GRIFFITH. [George
Allen
and
Unwin
Ltd.
1967.
578
pp.
including
index.
$8.1
PROFESSOR
GRIFFITII has ably carried out the difficult task of reviewing the
relationships between central departments and local authorities within the
somewhat restricted area of six major local government services. These are
uncharted waters but he has had the benefit of his research being sponsored
by the Royal Institute of Public Administration and also of an advisory
committee with
a
distinguished membership taken from the universities, civil
service and local government. The book is a tribute to the detailed nature
and thoroughness of his research, but in spite of the fact that Professor
Griffith has served as
a
member of both
a
county council and an urban district
council, and the fact that he and his research team visited about
a
hundred
local authority departments, one cannot escape the feeling that he must have
taken nearly all his information from the centre and comparatively little
from the local authorities themselves. Indeed such is the wealth of detail of
the administrative processes and of statistics that this could not be other-
wise. Criticisms of the present arrangements are occasionally made but not
with the fire with which local authorities sometimes speak. This is the account
by an academic of the relations of central departments with local authorities
and one would wish for
a
counterpart by
a
novelist dealing in more emotional
terms with the relations
of
local authorities with central departments. As
Professor Griffith himself says
‘‘
the central departments may encourage
or
may forbid, may seek to persuade
or
may frustrate. But in all this, the first
actor is usually, and the last actor is always, the local authority.” And again
“it is
a
pleasant and comforting evasion of the problem created by the
existence of these two political groups-the departments and the local
authorities-to say that they act
a8
partners. In the broadest terms their
interests may be the same
:
to promote the public welfare. But they are also
stationed in opposition to one another.”
The book will be of immense value to those studying this rapidly shifting
scene, and it is in no way casting doubts on this value
to
express the hope
that it will become rapidly out of date. There have indeed been changes
even in the short period since the book was written, changes in Ministries,
changes in highway classifications, in housing subsidy schemes and in the
system of controlling house building by local authorities. More major changes
are promised in, for example, the general grant formula, but even more
important than these, there are to be the radical alterations which will follow
the implementation of the proposals of the Royal Commission on Local Govern-
ment and, for that matter, the implementation of such of the proposals of
the Maud Committee on Management
of
Local Government as And favour.
All these prospective changes are matters of which Professor Griffith is well
aware and has touched on in his bqok. One hopes that when they come about
he will be able to write
a
new edition displaying
a
much more reasonable state
of
affairs than now exists.
A common thread running through the chapters dealing with the six
chosen major services is the demonstration of better results achieved and
treatment obtained by the larger authorities.
It
is made clear,
for
instance,
how larger authorities can better plan and seize their opportunities to carry
out schemes for schools, houses and highways.
It
is to be hoped that the
Royal Commission on Local Government will take notice of this reason and
466

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT