roles and responsibilities of local government, and the relations between central and local state and state and non-state interests. Likewise, in the 1920s, local government played an increasingly important role in the expansion of the welfare state and, in particular places, became a focus of political resistance to centralization (see, Branson 1979; Cochrane 1993; Duncan and Goodwin 1988). The post-war period saw the development of the modern welfare state system, with local government taking on greater responsibilities and adopting broader political, economic and social roles. During the 1980s and 1990s, the emergence of new institutional structures played a key part in the implementation of central policy agendas. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the changing nature of the local state, and of local government within it, is a perennial concern to academics and to policy makers alike (see, for example, Atkinson and Wilks-Heeg 2000; Cochrane 1993; Morris 2000; Raco and Imrie 2000; Rhodes 1997). Our paper in Transactions (Imrie and Raco 1999) represented a contribution to these debates by examining the continuities and contrasts between contemporary forms of local governance in the UK and 'old' modes of local government. Using evidence from two British cities, Cardiff and Sheffield, we argued that the 'new' local governance is not dissimilar to the substantive policy objectives or procedural policy styles of 'old' modes of local government. We demonstrated that the new local governance, far from representing a radical shift in styles and practices of governance is necessarily tied, albeit in complex ways, to the structures, policy styles and trajectories of 'old-style' local government. In this, we concur with Morris (2000, 3) who notes that historians should 'remind political scientists that many of the patterns identified with [local governance] in the post-1970s were not new'. Partnerships, networks, fragmented patterns of service delivery and boosterist politics have always been part of local governance since the nineteenth century. As such, we sought to challenge both (political) neo-liberal