Alistair Cole - Local Governance in England and France

Local Governance in England and France addresses issues at the cutting edge of comparative politics and public policy. The book is based on extensive research and interviews over 300 in total with local decision-makers in two pairs of cities in England and France: Leeds and Lille; Southampton and Rennes. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and professionals alike.

Local Governance in England and France provides a rigorous checklist of institutional and policy reforms in two countries since the early 1980s. Throughout, it demonstrates how comparable, but not identical, trends have restructured the different systems of local government in each country. The authors contend that there has been a transformation in traditional local governance in Britain and France, which has been particularly marked since the 1980s: old systems of policy-making have changed; new actors participate in local decision-making; accountability mechanisms have been contested and fresh challenges have emerged.

Key questions are posed about the changing role of the state, about the difficulties of policy co-ordination in a fragmented institutional context, and about the relationship between governance, networks, and political and democratic accountability. This book will be of great interest to the professional research community, and practitioners in Britain, France and beyond, as well as to students of comparative politics, European public policy, British/French politics, European studies, public management and local government studies.

Alistair Cole is Professorial Research Fellow at Cardiff University. His many publications include Franco-German Relations, French Politics and Society and FranoisMitterrand: A Study in Political Leadership.Peter John is Anniversary Reader in Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London. He chaired the Political Studies Association Research Sub-Committee, 19992000, and has worked with the Economic and Social Research Council as an adviser. He is the author of Analysing Public Policy.

Routledge studies in governance and public policy

1 Public Sector Ethics
Finding and implementing values
Edited by Charles Sampford and Noel Preston with Carol-Ann Bois

2 Ethics and Political Practice
Perspectives on legislative ethics
Edited by Noel Preston and Charles Sampford with Carol-Ann Bois

3 Why Does Policy Change?
Lessons from British transport policy 1945-99
Jeremy Richardson and Geoffrey Dudley

4 Social Relations and Social Exclusion
Rethinking political economy
Peter Somerville

5 Local Partnerships and Social Exclusion in the European Union
New forms of local social governance
Edited by Mike Geddes and John Benington

First published 2001
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group

Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

2001 Alistair Cole and Peter John

Typeset in Baskerville by
The Running Head Limited, Cambridge

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cole, Alistair, 1959-

Local governance in England and France/Alistair Cole and Peter John.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Local governmentEngland. 2. Local governmentFrance. 3. Leeds
(England)Politics and government. 4. Lille (France)Politics and government. 5.
Southampton (England)Politics and government. 6. Rennes (France)Politics and
government. I. John, Peter, 1960- II. Tide.

JS3111.C56 2001
320.80942dc21 00-068998

ISBN 0-415-23942-7

Local Governance in England and France is the final output of a long-running comparative research project which started life with the title Local policy networks and intergovernmental co-ordination in Britain and France, financed as part of UK Economic and Social Research Council's local governance programme (grant L311253047). We thank the ESRC for its support and the programme director, Gerry Stoker, for his encouragement at all stages. Alistair Cole is also grateful to the Leverhulme foundation (grant Rf+G/10711) and to the Nuffield foundation (grant SGS/LB/0278) for subsequent grants to investigate related projects. The support of these funding agencies was absolutely critical; this type of empirical work can only be undertaken with the support of the research councils and charities. We thank them.

At the core of the book lie over 300 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with decision-makers in two pairs of cities in England and France: Leeds and Lille, Southampton and Rennes. The interviewees are far too numerous to list here but we thank each and everyone of them. Most of the interviews (303) were carried out in 19946, with some follow-ups (15) in 19992000. They lasted about one hour and we taped and transcribed them. We retained a copy of each interview for our reference as we guaranteed interviewees their anonymity.

We would like to thank all of the institutions and individuals that co-operated in the project. In England, we are indebted to individuals in the following organisations: Leeds, Southampton, Eastleigh, Fareham, Hampshire and New Forest Councils; Leeds, Southampton and Fareham Chambers of Commerce and Industry; numerous private companies and partnerships in Leeds, Southampton and Hampshire; Hampshire and Leeds Training and Enterprise Councils; the Transport and General Workers Union; Leeds and Southampton universities; schools in Leeds and Hampshire; the Government Office for Yorkshire and Humberside; and the Government Office for the South East.

In the case of the French fieldwork, we would like to thank the following organisations which granted interviews and were very generous with their time: Academic Inspectorate, Nord Department; Academic Inspectorate, Ille-et-Vilaine Department; Academy of Lille (Rectorate); Academy of Rennes (Rectorate); Agency for the Promotion of Lille Metropole (APIM); Bonduelle, SA; Brquigny school, Rennes; Brittany Building Federation; Brittany Economic and Social Council; Brittany Economic Cell (CEB); Brittany Regional Council; Brittany Regional Prefecture; Catholic Teaching Federation, Ille-et-Vilaine (DDEC); Chateaubriand school, Rennes; Communes of Acign, Cesson-Sevign, Fches-Thumesnil, la Chapelle des Fougeretz, Lambersart, Lille, Rennes, Roubaix, Saint Grgoire, St Jacques, Tourcoing, Wasquehal and Wavrin; CREAT'IV; Credit Agricole; Education Ministry, Paris; Maison des Professions, Lille; Euralille mixed economy society; Eurasant; Fnlon school, Lille; French Democratic Labour Confederation (CFDT); French Society of Financial Analysts (SFAF); Lille General Labour Confederation (CGT); Hautes-Ourmes school, Rennes; ID 35; Ille-et-Vilaine Departmental Council; Ille-et-Vilaine Employers Union (UPIV); Ille-et-Vilaine Prefecture; Industry ministry (DRIRE), Douai, Rennes; Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing Chamber of Commerce; Lille Place Financire; Lille Urban Community; Lille Metropole Urban Development Agency (ADUML); National Parents Federation (FCPE); Nord Prefecture; Nord Departmental Council; Nord/Pas-de-Calais Dveloppement; Nord/Pas-de-Calais Regional Council; Nord/Pas-de-Calais Regional Prefecture; Office of Edmond Herv, mayor of Rennes; Office of Pierre Mauroy, mayor of Lille; Ouest Standard Tlmatiques, Rennes; Ouest-Atlantique, Rennes; Pasteur school, Lille; Regional Development society (SDR), Brittany; Regional Development Society (SDR), Nord/Pas-de-Calais; Regional Economic and Social Committee, Lille; Rennes Chamber of Commerce; Rennes Urban Development Agency (AUDIAR); Rennes Urban District; Rennes-Atalante; Research and Technology ministry (DRRT), Rennes; Secondary School Teachers Union (SNES), Lille; SEMAEB, Rennes; Senate; Society of French stock markets (SBF, Lille); Unified Trade Union Association (FSU). We also extend our warm thanks to the Centre for Administrative and Political Research in Rennes and the Centre for Administrative, Political and Social Research in Lille; the collaboration of these two French partners was central to the success of the project.