ABSTRACT
‘Politicisation’, so far as local government is concerned, is usually interpreted to mean an increasing degree of activity in local government by political parties qua parties, in particular the two major national parties. This interpretation opens up an important line of enquiry, as the 1986 Widdicombe Report (Cmnd 9797) and the valuable research material produced for the Committee amply demonstrate (Young 1986a). However, a wide interpretation is both necessary and desirable to improve our understanding of the political climate of local government. The term ‘politicisation’ should be used more generally to indicate a considerably increased degree of political activity and a general rise in the political temperature on some issue, in which partisan or party politicisation is just one factor. We are so used to similar patterns of political party activity in democratic societies that we tend to equate party activity with political activity, and to measure politicisation by the degree of party activity involved. Yet surely if the term is to mean anything it must be applicable to the arrival on the political agenda of any issue, anywhere — including one-party or non-party systems.
