Explaining local government, available at last in paperback, uniquely presents a history of local government in Britain from 1800 until the present day. The study explains how the institution evolved from a structure that appeared to be relatively free from central government interference to, as John Prescott observes, 'one of the most centralised systems of government in the Western world'.

The book is accessible to A level and undergraduate students as an introduction to the development of local government in Britain but also balances values and political practice to provide a unique explanation, using primary research, of the evolution of the system.

1. Local government before 1832
2. The impact of industrialisation
3. Compromise and confusion: the ad hoc local governments of mid-Victorian Britain
4. Municipal government to its zenith
5. Restructuring local government
6. The turning point: growth with decline
7. The slow road to 'modernisation'
8. War and social democracy
9. 'Modernising' the system 1951-79
10. Professionalism and alienation
11. Thatcher and Major
12. New Labour
13. Accounting for the evolution of local government in Britain
Appendices
Bibliography
Index