‘You can't play politics with people's jobs and people's services’: Localism and the politics of local government finance
‘You can't play politics with people's jobs and people's services’: Localism and the politics of local government finance
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“你不能利用人们的工作和服务来玩弄政治”：地方主义和地方政府财政政治
DOI：
10.1177/0269094211422190
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发表时间：
2011
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
S. Wilks‐Heeg
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Wilks‐Heeg
尽管地方主义原则得到了越来越多的跨党派支持，但联合政府激进的权力下放议程似乎注定会引发自上世纪80年代以来从未见过的中央与地方关系紧张。本文认为，这种摩擦的核心原因，削减2011-2013年地方政府财政结算的前期负担，必须被理解为保守党地方政府改革议程的核心。有人认为，与1987年后引入人头税一样，保守党采取了一种高风险的政治策略，要求政府说服选民，削减服务是因为地方议会的失败。2011年上半年的民意调查显示，公众尚未确信责任在于地方政府，但他们仍然愿意接受说服。然而，对2011年英国地方选举中预计的公共部门失业和投票模式进行的区域化分析表明，选民似乎将在削减开支影响最大的地区指责中央政府。如果未来的地方选举重复这种模式，地方主义议程背后的政治战略的局限性将变得非常明显。
Despite growing cross-party support for the principles of localism, the coalition's radical devolution agenda looks set to provoke a level of tension in central–local relations not seen since the 1980s. This article argues that the central cause of this friction, the front-loading of cuts in the local government financial settlement for 2011–2013, must be understood as the centrepiece of theConservatives’ agenda for local government reform. It is argued that, as with the introduction of the poll tax after 1987, the Conservatives have adopted a high-risk political strategy that will require the government to persuade voters that cuts in services arise from the failings of local councils. Evidence from opinion polls in the first half of 2011 suggests that the public is yet to be convinced that the blame lies with local government, but that they remain open to persuasion. However, a regionalized analysis of projected public sector job loss and voting patterns at the 2011 English local elections suggests that voters look set to blame central government in the areas where the cuts will hit hardest. If future local elections repeat this pattern, the limitations of the political strategy behind the localism agenda will become highly apparent.