Reviews: Geography and Regional Administration, French Revolution 1968, The Beginning of the End: France, May 1968, The Student Revolt: The Activists Speak, Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative, Resistance: The Political Autobiography of Georges Bidault, The New French Revolution: A Social and Economic Survey of France, 1945–1967, The Government of France, French Politics and Political Institutions, The Army of the Republic: The Role of the Military in the Political and Constitutional Evolution of France, 1871–1914, Parades and Politics at Vichy: The French Officer Corps Under Marshal Petain, La Socialization Politique Des Enfants, French Administrative Law, The French Parliament 1958–1967, Canadian Legislative Behaviour: A Study of the 25th Parliament, La Fonction Parlementaire En Belgique: Mecanismes D'Acces Et Images, Congress: Its Contemporary Role, Congress and Lobbies: Image and Reality, Congressional Ethics: The Conflict of Interest Issue, The Congressional Process: Strategies, Rules, and Proc
| Author | A. L. Reid,Hugh Gray,M. J. Walles,E. A. Rowe,Richard McAllister,Robert S. Short,S. J. R. Noel,L. P. O'Sullivan,Margherita Rendel,Dennis Dalton,Krishan Kumar,N. P. Keatinge,B. Keith-Lucas,R. J. Harrison,William Plowden,D. L. Coombes,O. W. Clark,William Hayter |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1969.tb00642.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| Subject Matter | Reviews |
236
REVIEWS
He
then classifies laws with families.
A
family must justify two criteria: that each system uses
the same concepts and techniques, and is founded on the same principles. He finds four families:
the Romano-Germanic, the Socialist of the Soviet and the People’s Republics, the Common
Law,
and the Religious and Traditional laws of Africa and the East. His lengthy account of the
history, structure and sources
of
each makes them intelligible to every lawyer whatever his
own
legal system may
be.
Barkun’s book may be dismissed briefly. It is yet another attempt to answer the question
‘What is law?’ It is
a
book for international law theorists designed to advance the proposition
that sanctions are of declining importance in international law. The American jargon is
so
complex and pervasive that the simple English lawyer can but guess at the intricacies of the
argument.
University
of
Manchester
HARRY
STREET
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND.
BYTHE
GREATER
THE LESSONS OF LONDON GOVERNMENT REFORMS.
By
THE
Official enquiries are becoming more valuable in the promotion and stimulation
of
social
research. This is
a
valuable advance from their more common role as collectors of opinion. The
two publications reviewed here are issued by the Royal Commission on Local Government and
consist of research studies prepared for the Commission by the Greater London Group at the
L.S.E.
It is convenient to describe the reports in reverse order. The second volume surveys how the
London Government Act,
1963,
has been working in practice together with
a
more detailed case-
study
of
the administration
of
the new London Borough of Hillingdon. The material on the
relationships between the London Boroughs and their co-operation with the Greater London
Council fully illustrates both the advantages and shortcomings of
a
two-tier system of local
government. Volume One is formidable in size and examines various facets
of
local government
throughout South-east England. There are four research reports on particular functions, Child
Care, Education, Housing and Welfare, and Mental Health Services, together with studies of
particular authorities in the area and
of
the extent to which management aids are used. Also
included are the results of a socio-geographic investigation largely devoted to journey-to-work
patterns and shopping hinterlands. In the opening section of this volume the Greater London
Group
set
down their recommendations to the Royal Commission for re-shaping local govern-
ment in the South-east.
By far the most striking outcome of the detailed research is that it failed to demonstrate any
constant relationship between efficiency and the size of an administrative unit. Hastings (popula-
tion
66,000)
is shown to have limitations as an education authority and may be classed as too
small, but no clear advantages were found
in
going above
200,000
population. On the other
hand, the bigger an authority, the greater must
be
the sense of remoteness, the more difficult
become personal relationships and public participation. It is refreshing to be told that efficiency
depends, in part, on non-quantifiable factors including tradition and personalities. This evidence
also rejects the D.E.S. view that education must everywhere be administered through
a
single
local authority-a view which requires all education to
be
operated through large units because
certain specialized education services can be arranged economically solely through large units.
The claim that primary schools must be tied to the same geographical unit as further education
I
diagnose as acute bureaucratic myopia.
As
a
prescription for action, however, this research material has a serious disadvantage.
London, and much of the South-east, is quite untypical of England as a whole. This is the most
prosperous part of the country where rateable value per head is highest. The density of popula-
tion is
also
high and the predominently urban,
or
suburban, character erodes local loyalties. The
LONDON
GROUP.
(H.M.S.O.
Pp.
xS570.
40s.)
GREATER
LONDON
GROUP.
(H.M.S.O.
Pp.
xf80.
7s.
9d.)
REVIEWS 237
recasting of second-tier authorities in London aroused no public interest because any boundaries
are artificial in
a
forest of bricks and mortar. But the Isle of Wight will not surrender its separate
institutions as easily as Battersea or Brentford.
The Greater London Group’s recommendation is for a two-tier framework based on regions
and districts in which the districts would have a minimum population of
200,000
and would be
responsible for the main social services. (‘District’ is an uninspired and unfortunate name which
produces an image of Victoriana and drains.) If inhabitants
so
desire, a third tier of Town and
Village authorities might be established, with largely consultative functions, although they
would have ‘the power to make improvements to local amenities’. The Group makes detailed
proposals
of
how these principles should
be
applied to the South-east. Obviously the production
of maps showing
a
new structure demonstrates difficulties and invites objections. Nevertheless,
of all the literature
on
the reform of local government, this has the soundest base in fact and is the
most persuasive.
By the time this review appears the Report of the Royal Commission itself may have been
published and readers will be able to consider for themselves how far the Greater London Group
has been influential. Whatever the outcome, their research will remain
a
major contribution to
local government studies.
University
of
Southampton
PETER
0.
RICHARDS
GEOGRAPHY AND REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION.
By
T.
w.
FREE-
MAN.
(Hutchinson University Library.
Pp.
200.
13s.
6d.)
When the Royal Commission on Local Government in England
is
about to report, this survey of
the history of administrative boundaries in England and Wales
is
welcome, and it is valuable to
see
the problems through the eyes of
a
geographer rather than those of an administrator or a
local
councillor. Mr. Freeman, who is Reader in Economic Geography at Manchester University,
is not primarily concerned with the political and managerial problems of local government, but
rather with the characteristics of regions and districts, their relation with each other, and the
impact of the growth
of
population in the last hundred years.
The Royal Commission has before it the evidence
of
the various Ministries concerned with
local government; this points, with remarkable unanimity, to
a
reorganization based on the
conception of ‘city regions’. The Commission also has, as one of its members, Mr. Derek
Senior, who, just as the Commission started its inquiry, published his
own
solution to the prob-
lem, declaring that there was one solution, and only one-the concept of the city region. This
view Dr. Freeman challenges strongly. He quotes Senior’s statement that, on the basis of thirty-
six
city regions,
six
are ‘mature’, and the remaining thirty either ‘emergent’, ‘embryonic’ or
‘potential’. He then questions the assumption that such counties as Devon and Cornwall,
Hereford and Cambridge will eventually fit into the pattern of city regions. He sees rather the
need for different answers
in
different parts of the country, and particularly between the industrial
and the rural regions.
At least half the book, however.
is
given, not to speculation about the future, but to a survey
of
past attempts to bring the administrative map up to date-particularly the Royal Commission
on Municipal Boundaries, 1837, the definition of counties and county boroughs in 1888, and the
reports
of
the Local Government Commission of 1958-65, and the Royal Commission on
London, 1957-60. Unfortunately the value of some of this is reduced by the fact that he writes as
if the recommendations of the 1837 Commission (to which he devotes twenty-five pages) had in
fact been implemented, which they were not. The boundaries of the boroughs remained as they
had been temporarily defined in the Schedule to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, until
they were individually altered by Local Acts later in the century. The Commission’s report was
ignored.
Apart from this, Mr. Freeman’s contribution to the debate-balanced, informed arid litgrcal-
--
is a welcome addition to the considerable literature on the
subject.
University
of
Kent
B.
KEITH-LUCAS
To continue reading
Request your trial