ABSTRACT
The twentieth century saw a continual growth in the politicisation of local government so that by the late 1990s it was only in the most rural and outlying areas of the United Kingdom where the influence of political parties were not the dominant factor in local elections and local politics. This has had a number of impacts including increasing competition for seats, so that there are both more candidates and fewer councillors are returned unopposed, and has resulted in parties being the basis for much of the decision-making structure and process within local government. Railings and Thrasher (1997a) analyse the issues associated with the electoral role of parties in some detail.
