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Trends in English Local Government, 19441

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Edward W. Weidner
Edward W. Weidner
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

Many accusations are being made in England at the present time that an over-centralized bureaucracy is stifling local government. The Government's plans for local government in the postwar period tend, it is said, to abolish local self-government.

If any such trends are discernible, an examination of local-government developments in 1944 ought to reveal them, since that year was one of profound change for English local government. Nearly every service administered by local government was in some way affected. Some services were enlarged, others reduced. New services were added, old ones dropped. Central-local relations in the performance of these functions were in nearly every case altered. Even the relations between different units of local government were modified.

In the pages that follow, an attempt is made to summarize some of the most important changes made in 1944 in the services performed by local units and to indicate some of the trends which are manifest when the changes are viewed as a whole.

Type
Foreign Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , April 1945 , pp. 337 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1945

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References

2 Only developments since 1943 are discussed in the present article. For earlier ones, see Jennings, W. Ivor (first edition) and Hargeaves, A. D. (second edition), Local Authorities in War-Time (London, 1941).Google Scholar No apology is needed for not considering here all of the special functional problems of metropolitan London, since that of itself would be a suitable topic for separate treatment.

3 For a brief account of recent developments in planning before 1944, see British Government Machinery for Reconstruction (A Summary Account), British Information Services, Jan., 1944, pp. 4–5. For a summary of the Act's provisions, see Municipal Review, Vol. 15, p. 147 (1944), and of the White Paper's provisions, ibid., p. 173. Cf. National Municipal Review, Vol. 33, p. 567 (1944), and Vol. 34, pp. 60–63 (1945).

4 For the Ministry of Health's circular and its appendix, see Municipal Journal, Vol. 52, pp. 339 and 403 (1944). A summary of the Housing (Temporary Provisions) Act can be found in Municipal Journal, Vol. 52, p. 1246 (1944). The Housing (Temporary Accommodations) Act is variously discussed in ibid., 1482 and 1659 (1944), and Municipal Review, Vol. 15, p. 114 (1944).

5 For the Exchequer's memorandum, see Municipal Journal, Vol. 52, p. 1295 (1944). For a discussion of the proposal, see National Municipal Review, Vol. 33, p. 498 (1944), and Municipal Journal, Vol. 53, p. 123 (1945).

6 For a summary of the White Paper's proposals, see Municipal Journal, Vol. 52, pp. 297 and 341 (1944), and Public Administration, Vol. 22, p. 87 (1944).

7 A discussion of the ways in which the White Paper affects local government may be found in Local Government Service, Vol. 23, p. 203 (1944).

8 For a summary of the Act's provisions, see Municipal Review, Vol. 15, pp. 7, 201, and 209 (1944).

9 For a summary of this White Paper, see Municipal Review, Vol. 15, p. 118 (1944).

10 See National Municipal Review, Vol. 33, p. 644 (1944).

11 Ibid., Vol. 33, p. 560 (1944).

12 For a summary of the White Paper's provisions, see Municipal Journal, Vol. 53, pp. 7–8 (1945). For more extended discussion of the White Paper, see “Local Affairs Abroad,” in National Municipal Review, May, 1945.