Local Government Reforms under New Labour

The years 1997-2010 were a period of changes and political reforms in the United Kingdom. The initial years saw some important reforms, such as the ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights and the creation of elected assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Devolution has consolidated and augmented differences in the practices of local governments and in legal regulations amongst different parts of Britain. The Labour government has laid strong emphasis on modernization of English local government. Apart from reforms of structures of representative democracy, the government promoted forms of participatory and deliberative democracy. Under New Labour the reforms of local government introduced in England were predominantly implemented according to the concept of local governance. The basic objective of practical implementation of this concept was to reach the two main purposes, i.e. democratic renewal and improvement of services. The New Labour have displayed a tremendous faith in social engineering. All consultation procedures underscored New Labour`s preference for strictly supervised democratic participation. The governmental reform programme aimed at reaching democratic renewal has not produced expected results. In spite of the many reforms, initiatives and funds, political and civil involvement of citizens has not increased. “Democratization” resulted in the mobilization of small groups with greater exercise of government control. In the years 1997-2010 strong emphasis was put on modernization of services. The government was able to make massive investments in public services. The results of national surveys show that there were increases in public satisfaction with most services delivered by local government (but not with local government itself). A substantial factor in improvement of services was the use of instruments of the new public management, in particular top-down performance management and exceptionally restrictive regime of inspection imposed by the central authorities. However, whether these practices actually improved the quality of public services is a matter of considerable dispute. The concept of local governance is not easy to put in practice and to achieve the expected effect. This does not mean that networks are not viable in th