Leigh considers the competing and legally interlocking claims of local representative democracy, financial accountability and consumerism, and their implications for the governing structures of local authorities and for local electors, councillors, taxpayers, the users of local services, and council employees.

• PART I: Legal and Political Foundations


• 1: Local Democracy in its Constitutional Setting


• 2: The Powers of Local Government


• Part II: Accountability to the Public


• 3: Information, Public Participation, and Accountability


• 4: Financial Accountability


• 5: Consumer Accountability


• PART: III: Political Leadership and Decision-Making


• 6: Party Groups, Councillors, and the Law


• 7: Executive Structures


• 8: Officers and Politics


• Part IV: The Council in the Community


• 9: Politics and Contracts


• 10: Local Government, Business, and partnership


• 11: Conclusion: The New Local Government

Ian Leigh is Professor of Law at the University of Durham. Before returning to academic life he practised as a solicitor with a large district council. He is co-author (with Professor Laurence Lustgarten) of In the Cold: National Security and Parliamentary Democracy (Clarendon Press, 1994) and has written extensively on public law and human rights.