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This paper presents a case study of the Consultative Council on Local Government Finance during the years 1974-79 and explores the usefulness of corporatist theory for explaining its origins and subsequent evolution. In addition the paper is an exercise in contemporary history and it is argued that the analysis of developments in the 1970s is essential for understanding current problems, whatever theory is adopted. It concludes that corporatist theory is both too rigid and too inclusive, failing to recognise variations between policy areas in the pattern of government-interest group relations. A more productive concept for analysing such relationships is that of the policy network.

The era of the 'Social Contract' between 1974 and 1979 has been seen as the epitome of 'corporatism' in British government. This article explores the utility of the concept of 'corporatism' for the study of intergovernmental relations, examining pay negotiations in the fire service between 1976 and 1980. It identifies the central characteristics associated with a corporatist system; describes the institutional and procedural context of pay negotiations in the fie service; catalogues the events surrounding the firemen's strike of 1977; and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of corporatism in explaining these events. It concludes that the concept of corporatism has now acquired so many multiple and contiguous meanings that it adds little to the analysis of relationships between government, local government (employers) and the trade unions. Such terms as network, compliance and executive authority are of greater use than the corporatist terminology of hierarchy, regulation and order.

The description 'radical' tends to invoke left-wing images in many people's heads: it has almost become the antonym of conservative. But in the sense of appealing to fundamental principles, the present Conservative Government certainly claims to be radical. Its policies purport to break with the immediate past in British politics and they are said to derive from the principles of monetarism. No area has been subject to a more radical reassessment than that of central-local relations. Conservative policies have been seen as a grave threat to local government. They are said to undermine its constitutional foundations and considerable concern has been expressed about the erosion of local autonomy. This paper attempts to evaluate the distinctiveness of present policies. But in order to assess recent changes, it is necessary to look to the immediate past and to identify any continuities as well as disjunctions in central government's policy. A decade is a short time in the life of a polity but, by insisting that current developments be located in even this confined context, it will become clear that there is, in fact, a large measure of continuity in the relationship between central and local government. Whether the government has been Conservative or Labour, the trend has been towards the increased control of the level and pattern of sub-national expenditure.