ABSTRACT
The White Paper Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People contains a range of proposals for modernising British local government. Some are concerned with improving the quality, cost-effectiveness and responsiveness of local services. Other proposals, however, are concerned with the constitutional position of local government, which for various reasons is viewed as in need of ‘democratic renewal’. There are four key elements to the democratic renewal programme aimed at developing opportunities for citizens to participate in local government. This article summarises the main trends emerging from a recent DETR-commissioned research project on the forms of participation being carried out by local authorities, and exposes some of the tensions and contradictions of public participation in the context of the wider democratic renewal agenda.
