ABSTRACT
Local government in the United Kingdom is often a ‘Cinderella level of government’, with local elections and public policy largely forgotten and overshadowed by the needs of national politics and party competition. While local elections remain dominated by the main parties, there is nevertheless a diversity in local electoral contests that is lacking at the national parliamentary level. Each of the UK’s four countries has a different system of local government. Diversity is found in different local electoral systems and franchises, variation in patterns of local party competition, the continued existence of nonpartisan independents, and the gradual extension of new forms of electoral competition, such as directly elected mayors in England. In other ways, however, local government looks very traditional, with important questions concerning the lack of female and ethnic minority representation.
