ABSTRACT
Until the 1980s local government had two key characteristics which marked it out as autonomous: control over an independent source of taxation and the legitimacy conveyed through the electoral process. The changes under the Thatcher governments effectively removed the former and minimised the impact of the latter. In the late 1990s Labour’s commitment to ‘revitalising’ local democracy recognised the difficulties in claiming popular legitimacy on very low turn-outs and the reality that in many areas local government appeared to lack relevance and immediacy to many electors, as well as the need to draw other parts of the policy making and implementation process into the realm of elected government.
