Publisher's Synopsis
In the 1980s there was a marked increase in the number of hung local authorities or authorities in which there was no clear majority. This was due largely to the increased strength of third party politics (especially the Liberal/SDP Alliance) and led in 1985 to over half the counties becoming hung. This book describes the different patterns of hungness and the response of local authorities to the new situation which called for new patterns of behaviour from large numbers of councillors and officers who had been used to the certainties of majority control. It shows that there were different responses in different authorities work, while others were marked by major conflicts.;The book explores the reasons for these differences. It argues that the experience of hung authorities can increase understanding of the political management of local authorities and of political behaviour at the local level. It shows that while there are clear differences between the issues raised by hung local authorities from those that would be faced in a hung Parliament, in neither can it be assumed that past ways of working can continue unchanged in the hung situation. The book raises questions that would have to be faced in a hung Parliament as they have been in hung authorities.
