REVIEWS
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1987.tb01725.x |
| Date | 01 July 1987 |
| Published date | 01 July 1987 |
REVIEWS
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
IN
THE
MODERN STATE.
By
MARTIN LOUCHLIN.
[London:
Sweet
and Maxwell.
1986. 222pp. $12.50.1
THIS
book
is
a study
of
recent changes in the role
of
local government and
its services, within the overall system
of
government. It is not a detailed
presentation
of
local government law nor is it a description
of
the
principles
of
local government. Those seeking such works can find them
elsewhere. Instead its focus is on
change
both in the law and in
administrative arrangements. Change in the law
is
not treated in isolation
but is related to social, economic and political change.
Many have commented on the major changes in central-local relations
that have taken place as a result
of
the legislation introduced by the
Conservative Government since
1979.
But the emphasis has always been
put on change in the financial relationship. While those changes have been
of
great importance and are rightly given emphasis by Loughlin in this
book, his distinctive contribution is the much wider scope
of
this book,
which covers the whole pattern
of
legal and administrative change, with a
special emphasis on public transport, housing, education, planning and
economic development
as
well as on local government finance.
The argument
of
the book is that the system
of
central-local relations in
the post-war period which could best be described as an “ambiguous
partnership between central and local authorities” has been subject
to
increasing strain
as
a result
of
the economic crisis faced by this country.
That crisis has lead
to
a “rationality crisis” because the past structure
of
central-local relations has been destroyed by the undermining
of
the
assumptions
of
growth on which it has been based. There has also been a
“legitimation crisis” because
of
declining confidence in the capacity
of
the
existing system to perform its functions. Finally, Loughlin identifies a
“motivation crisis” in the challenge to social integration.
He
argues that the “Conservative Government has in response attempted
a fairly radical restructuring of the system. In order to deal with the
legitimation and motivation crisis it has sought to restore legitimacy
through a process
of
“reformalisation”
of
local government law and
purpose and direction through the injection
of
market rationality into local
government structures. In order to deal with the rationality crisis
it
has
restructed
(sic)
the central-local relationship in a hierarchical form”
(p.
199).
Much
of
the book is an examination
of
the changes in the law made by
the Conservative Government since
1979
to support these contentions.
Loughlin’s contention is not merely that the Conservative Government has
changed its policies towards local government, but that it has changed the
legal forms in which that law
is
expressed and the relationship between
central government and local authorities. This is the process he describes
of
the reformalisation
of
local government law.
Loughlin shows that in the past most,
if
not all, legislation allowed very
considerable discretion to local authorities, “Thus local government law is
concerned primarily with
powers
rather than
duties
and many
of
these
powers are drafted in wide discretionary terms which are capable
of
broad
interpretation.” That is what Loughlin regards as the inherited position.
Although those within local authorities often speak
of
statutory constraints
as though they were severe and
of
minimum standards as though they
536
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