ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the local state. The Local Education Authority (LEA) constitutes in terms of activity, provision and finance one of the major parts of the local government unit, thus it can be seen as constituting an important part of the local state and its activity. The relations of the LEA to the DES and national politics on the one hand, and local teacher union leaders on the other, finds varying degrees of control, co-operation, and contestation. The organisation of teachers' unions itself reflects changes in Liverpool's social, political and religious cultures. The local Liverpool political scene has been characterised by the combined effects of the influence of the Catholic/Protestant divide and an employment pattern and trade union tradition of what might be termed 'bossism', which had little base in large or democratic local parties.
