ABSTRACT
The supreme decision-makers in any local authority are its elected members. All decisions taken anywhere in a local authority are formally those of the council and all the staff employed by the authority are ultimately responsible to it. Although the public image of councillors is generally poor: they tend to be regarded as pompous, corrupt and extravagant in their spending of other people’s money—nonetheless, thousands of councillors devote many hours of their time and a great deal of energy to their service on local authorities. These councillors and the parties or other systems that recruit them, procure their election and organise their activities, constitute the main political elements in each local political system: the only other major factor to consider is pressure group activity, which tends to be related to officers rather than members (Newton, 1976). Councillors and their parties supply the policy guidelines within which their officers must work. They reflect more or less adequately the demands and needs of the citizens whom councillors are elected to represent.
