La carotte et le bâton... de dynamite. Le programme travailliste de modernisation du Local Government

In: Revue française d'administration publique, Band 88, Heft 1, S. 529-546

Abstract

Carrots and Semtex. New Labour's Modernisation Agenda for British
Local Government
The New Labour's modernisation agenda resembles a politics of semtex and carrots. The resources offered by the state are done so in a conditional manner : local authorities must, under threat of sanction, show themselves willing to undertake modernisation in the way prescribed by the government. The invitation to enter into dialogue is a purely formal one : in reality it is a question of choice between modernising or disappearing altogether. As for the recompense for those local councils which submit, it consists of a much awaited reform of local finances, the content of which remains ill defined however.