Local Political Leadership

The election of the Blair government has pushed the topic of local political leadership firmly onto the agenda of both local authorities and the academic community. Best Value, public participation and partnerships have become centre stage. The last 20 years have not only seen a fragmentation of local service delivery, they have also witnessed a centralisation of power, often at the expense of elected local government. Political leadership is becoming a much more explicit and widespread feature of British local government with important external drivers. Local political leadership: examines the complexities of the concept of leadership, focusing on the intrinsic tension between leadership behaviour and leadership position; discusses the key leadership tasks - maintaining cohesiveness, developing strategic policy direction, external relations and task accomplishment; looks at leadership in practice; explores the way in which the agenda of change set out in the 1998 White paper has emerged, and develops an analysis of how leadership is likely to operate in the new system. This timely review of contemporary local political leadership in Britain moves from concepts to case studies, and grounds theory in practice, drawing on over 100 interviews with political leaders and chief executives. Local political leadership is important reading for students on undergraduate and postgraduate politics/public policy courses, practitioners having to deal with the consequences of differing patterns of local leadership, and councillors fearful about losing influence in the wake of small executive groups emerging.