ANALYSING POLITICAL CHOICE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY APPROACH

Despite the centralizing trends which have characterized the 1980s, local authorities have displayed considerable skill in their pursuit of policies designed to cope with effects of the government's grant abatements and other, legislative restrictions. Indeed, it is paradoxical that a continued diversity in response has characterized the strategies of various local authorities over the period. However, our theoretical understanding has often failed to keep pace with the reality of a still vibrant local government. Even those 'output' studies which identified the different influences at work invariably failed to explain why localities diverged in their responses. Similarly, the expository power of sophisticated intergovernmental relations (IGR) models has not fully accounted for such divergence. This research builds on the IGR model but explicitly acknowledges the importance of a 'localities effect' in shaping the application of the model in specific local authorities. This is facilitated by a comparative case study approach based on evidence from Glasgow and Liverpool.