Abstract
The key to the core of this chapter is in its title. Constitutionally, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) is still a unitary state comprising three countries – England, Scotland, Wales – plus the province of Northern Ireland. Since 1998, though, the last three have had their own elected parliaments or assemblies and devolved governments, whose responsibilities naturally include most local government functions and operations. It is arguable, therefore, that in practice nowadays the UK is quasi-federal. England, with 84% of the UK population, doesn't have a separate parliament, but is gradually working out its own form of devolution. The chapter describes all these developments, but its detail is largely reserved for the structure and workings of local government in England – elections and elected councillors, services and functions, and its currently rapidly changing finances – and the impact, particularly on councils' financial and policy discretion, of its having, in population terms, by far the largest scale of local government in Western Europe.
TopBritish Local Government: An Exceptional System
As a single-country case study, this chapter will focus very largely on the decentralized, devolved – arguably quasi-federal – governmental system in Britain/the UK1. It will also refer in places to other, particularly other European, systems and practices. More often than not, though, these references will take the form of contrasts, rather than the noting of similarities – the reason being that one of the chapter’s assertions is that, in its organization and much of its conduct of sub-central government, Britain is exceptional.
All systems of decentralized government differ. But this chapter will suggest that, in several important ways, Britain’s differs more than most. France – whose local government system and structures are likely to be more recognizable to Turkish readers – is also exceptional, but at the opposite end of the European scale spectrum, as can be seen in Table 1. The two countries – France and Britain – have very similarly sized populations and both have relatively large local government sectors, but in their approaches to local government they are “at the opposite ends of the spectrum” (Council of European Municipalities and Regions [CEMR], 2009, p.3; CEMR, 2013b).
Table 1. Scale of European local government: By average population per municipality
| Pop (Mil.) | Levels of Sub-Central Government | Approximate Numbers of Lower Tier (Most Local) Principal Councils | Average Population
Per Council | % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) |
| Total Public Sector Expenditure | Sub-National Public Sector Expenditure | Sub-National Public Sector Tax Revenue |
| France | 65 | 3 | 36780 Communes | 1800 | 56 | 12 | 5.5 |
| Spain | 47 | 3 | 8120 Municipios | 5800 | 45 | 25 (fed) | 10.3 |
| Germany | 83 | 3 | 11250 Gemeinden | 7400 | 45 | 21 (fed) | 11.1 |
| Italy | 61 | 3 | 8100 Comuni | 7500 | 50 | 15 | 6.4 |
| Belgium | 11 | 3 | 590 Gemeenten | 18700 | 53 | 22 (fed) | 4.6 |
| Greece | 11 | 3 | 325 Dimos | 33800 | 52 | 3 | 0.2 |
| Sweden | 10 | 2 | 290 Kommuner | 34500 | 51 | 25 | 15.2 |
| Netherlands | 17 | 2 | 390 Gemeenten | 43300 | 50 | 17 | 1.4 |
| Denmark | 6 | 2 | 98 Kommuner | 61000 | 58 | 37 | 12.7 |
| Turkey | 77 | 2 | 1394 Belediye | 55000 | 39 | 6 | 0.5 |
| EU 28 | 510 | | 89750 | 5680 | 49 | 17 | 6.6 |
| UK | 64 | ½ | 391 Districts, etc. | 164000 | 48 | 13 | 1.7 |
| England | 54 | ½ | 326 Districts, etc. | 167000 | |
Sources: Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) Factsheets: A figure-based portrait of local and regional Europe (Brussels, 2013); Turkish GDP figures calculated by Uğur Sadioğlu from T.R. Ministry of Finance and Turkish Statistical Institute data. (fed) – ‘Sub-national’ in these federal systems includes both provincial and local expenditure/revenue.