Introduction: Understanding the Crisis

Abstract

Relations between central and local government have been problematic since the mid-1970s and are now in crisis. The structures of government embody an understanding of citizenship, a conception of individual needs and capacities as well as the proper relationship they should have – and the contribution they can make – to the polity. There have been various distinctive forms of the postwar British state: the initial postwar settlement created a welfare state which by the 1960s had developed into a social democratic state. The problems of managing the economy in the 1970s and 1980s have led to the development, first, of a corporate, and then a liberal state. Changes to the system of central–local financial relations operated to encourage growth in expenditure. Relations between central and local government reflected the general restructuring towards a corporate state. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.