ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the current wisdom of the 1970s on the subject of local government management, and at the way it was applied in Strathclyde. This focus on ‘management’ issues tangles inevitably with political issues, those of status and power. In particular, then, this chapter looks at the status of senior local government officers, the Directors of key departments, and looks at the status of their ‘professional judgment’. We also look (more briefly) at the role of the party group – which is the Labour Group in Strathclyde – and at the relationships which are envisaged between professional staff and elected members. The corporate planning movement challenged conventional wisdom in several of these areas, but, more significantly, it left several pieces of conventional wisdom quite undisturbed.
