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Since first publication in 1982, Howard Elcock's Local Government has established a reputation as a comprehensive and unbiased account of how British local government really works. This respected textbook has been completely revised and rewritten for its third edition, to take account of changes in local government and in the circumstances in which it operates. The third edition examines new management structures and accountabilities that follow the policy initiatives of the central Conservative administration. It appraises the impact of the three-pronged reform of the Thatcher years: impact o

Political leadership is a concept central to understanding political processes and outcomes, yet its definition is elusive. Many disciplines have contributed to the study of leadership, including political theory, history, psychology and management studies. Political Leadership reviews the contributions of these disciplines along with a discussion of the work of classic authors such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Max Weber and Robert Michels.

New updated edition of a comprehensive text which reveals how British local government really works. Now covers new management structures and the impact of Conservative reforms on finance and services.

Since 1979, under governments of both major parties, the thrust of British public policy has been radically changed in the direction of neoliberal economics and the 'New Public Management' (NPM). This has had profound effects on the priorities that politicians and the officials who advise them are expected to pursue. The traditional public service values of equity, probity and integrity have been displaced by the business values of economy, efficiency and effectiveness – the 'Three Es' ( Hood, 1991 ). Many of the provisions and regulations that were designed to reduce risks of corrupt or otherwise improper behaviour were relaxed in favour of generating more entrepreneurial attitudes among public servants and recruiting entrepreneurial talent from the business world. The benefits of enterprise have been significant in terms of gains in innovation, efficiency and improved relations with the public; but on the other hand, corrupt, selfish and greedy behaviour by some politicians and public servants has seriously eroded public respect for politics and public administration alike. More generally, markets and their values have increasingly dominated political, economic and social discourses and decision making, with the result that markets are now used to determine outcomes that would formerly have been regarded as inappropriate for the application of market methods and which arguably are still inappropriate issues for markets alone to determine (Sandel, 2012). Hence a review of the ethical issues that underpin public policymaking, administration and management is urgently required. Michael Sandel (2010) has argued that we need to rethink the importance of justice and related values in our public life, albeit that we disagree among ourselves about many moral and religious issues: 'A politics of moral engagement is not only a more inspiring ideal than a politics of avoidance. It is also a more promising basis for a just society' (Sandel, 2010: 269).

Countries can and sometimes do copy the institutions and practices of other countries in order to address problems and issues that they have in common with them. The office of directly elected mayor has become an increasingly common feature of local government throughout the developed democracies, spreading from its largely American origins to a range of European states. This paper develops a matrix for the analysis of elected mayors in different countries using as its horizontal axis the formal, informal and individual attributes of elected mayors and, on the vertical axis, their governmental, governance and allegiance roles. The matrix is then applied to analyse studies of elected mayors in four countries: the United States, England, Germany and Greece, in an attempt to derive comparative lessons applicable to the countries included in the analysis, as well as to countries considering or in the process of developing directly elected executive mayors. The issues examined include improving the internal co‐ordination of local authorities' departments, the need for network management in increasingly fragmented or 'hollowed out' local government systems and the ways in which mayors attempt to secure their political survival and that of the offices they hold, by securing and retaining the allegiance of voters and stakeholders. It also explores the benefits and dangers of concentrating much formal power and informal influence in a single pair of hands. Its conclusions are offered both to demonstrate ways in which comparative studies of political institutions can be developed and in the hope that they may be of use to mayors and those concerned with the development and reform of local government and governance.