The thesis explores changes in local democracy through an analysis of the challenges for councillors created by the growing phenomenon of social media. New platforms for online dialogue such as Twitter and Facebook offer ...

In the UK, local authorities are already the largest across Europe. There are moves in England and Wales to make some of these local authorities even larger. This is being carried out through voluntary mergers as well ...

The local state, and more broadly the logic of the local, remains divorced from accounts of urban governance. Addressing this omission, this article examines how a focus on the local opens up new avenues of enquiry in urban ...

The book explores the changing nature of the roles powers, tasks, functions, expectations and challenges of the office of councillor and those that are elected to that office. Based on detailed and long-term research among ...

There are many problems when examining the concept of 'good governance'. There are numerous definitions, not all of which are applicable to local government. Often, there is a clear gap in perceptions between the ...

This article reflects on how the philosophical foundations of public administration and the practice of local government can be linked together. Informed by Ongaro, E. (2017. Philosophy and public administration: An ...

Whether citizens should directly elect the mayor or whether only councillors should be able to indirectly choose the local political to the exclusion of the public from the process, is one of the most controversial debates ...

The chapter aims at highlighting and analyzing attempts to restore or improve the existing institutions of representative democracy – the councils and the councillors – in 15 different European countries, from a comparative ...

Much has been made of the dual polity concept of local government. By comparison less has been made of conceptualising local government’s dual purpose role. The political and service provision roles of local government ...

The paper reports the results of research conducted among councillors in England which explored how they operate in complex governing networks where they interact with a range of public and private bodies. Councillors, as ...