Product Description: Explaining local government uniquely presents a history of local government in Britain since 1800 until the present day. The study explains how the institution evolved from a structure that appeared to be relatively free from central government interference to, as John Prescott observes, 'one of the most centralised systems of government in the Western world'...read more

Product Description: Public Policy and Private Interest explains the complexities of the policy making process in a refreshingly clear way for students who are new to this subject. The key topics it explains are: How policy originates, is refined, legitimised, implemented, evaluated and terminated in the forms of theoretical models of the policy process; Which actors and institutions are most influential in determining the nature of policy; The values that shape the policy agenda such as ideology, institutional self-interest and resource capabilities; The outcome of policies, and why they succeed or fail; The main policy theories including the very latest insights from network theory and post-modernism; How national policy is influenced by globalization...read more

Product Description: This accessible introduction to the system of public administration uses a clear, country by country analysis to the contemporary system of public administration and management in a number of significant countries. This text examines the extent to which new public management, politicians and public opinion can influence bureaucracies in various countries; in addition, it explores the role of public administration systems within the wider political systems and democratic frameworks of their states...read more

Local government in Britain is often viewed as being bureaucratic and impersonal. In America or France it can be genuinely local, and permit small communities to determine their future and their standards of basic public services. The quality and nature of local government varies widely between different countries. A full understanding of local government can only be gained by comparing one country to another. This book draws together a range of contributors who outline the structures and workings of local government in England and Wales, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Canada and the US. The book provides students with chapters that have a similar format in order to offer a framework for systematic comparisons of the different case studies. The book also includes a conclusion summarizing major differences and relationships between the structures studied. Contributors include J.A. Chandler, John Kingdom, M. McManus, M.C. Hunt, R.E. Spence, A.R. Peters and Bernard Jones.

Product Description: This work aims to offer more concrete information about John Major's initiative on the Citizen's Charter. It emerges from a conference - The Waves of Change: Public Management in the 1990s, organised in 1993 by the Sheffield Business School...read more

Product Description: Discusses the process of policy-making for local government and illustrates the findings through case studies of the creation and abolition of the GLC and the Metropolitan counties.