Challenges to Local Government [Hardcover]

Challenges to Local Government offers a timely discussion of how local governments have implemented public policies during the last decade. Concentrating on Britain and the United States (but with essays on Scandinavia, France and Canada) the authors document, explain and analyze the implications of these policies for local autonomy, focusing especially upon local economic initiatives.Challenges to Local Government offers a timely discussion of how local governments have implemented public policies during the last decade. Concentrating on Britain and the United States (but with essays on Scandinavia, France and Canada) the authors document, explain and analyze the implications of these policies for local autonomy, focusing especially upon local economic initiatives.`The editor's aim is to provide a collection of papers which document and interpret the changing economic and political situations of local governments in various advanced countries. This is a laudable goal and a great deal of useful empirical information is provided throughout the book. Challenges to Local Government is a valuable resource for those seeking a factual, descriptive account of recent changes in central-local relations and local government programs in the United Kingdom and selected advanced countries. It is a collection that invites us to develop more complex conceptions of the processes involved in local state research, and to engage with alternative critical perspectives such as feminism' - Environment and Planning `contributes to the scholarly literature about the role of decentralized government in modern society' - Professor George Jones

`The thirteen chapters in this book...demonstrate an impressive and stimulating range of international material, from Britain, the US, Canada, Scandinavia and other EC countries....The chapter olc0