Stein Rokkan’s analysis of centres and peripheries is applied to the case of North-East England, the country’s most peripheral region. The North-East’s ability to represent its needs and wishes to the central government and the European Union has been hampered by the...

The nature and the practice of local political leadership are undergoing rapid change. In the UK, policy initiatives have included the adoption of executive leadership systems in the form of the directly elected mayor or the increasing selection of council leaders for four-year terms rather than...

This is an interesting time to review the attitudes and expectations of some leading figures in local government as the old age of despair is drawing to an end and a new dawn seems to be brightening the horizon. This article reports the view of half a dozen local government leaders. Early...

Structural reorganization of local government is an addictive habit to which British government ministers and civil servants are peculiarly prone. In the latest instance, several unitary authorities were created where two-tier systems existed previously. Interviews and documentary research...

<title/> This article examines the new leadership role of the English elected mayor. The authors suggest that the management and governance of the local authority is subject to significant change within the mayoral system, and that elected mayors represent a form of strong political management which is...