Councillors’ perspectives on democratic legitimacy in English local government: politics through provision?

Much has been made of the dual-polity concept of local government. By comparison less has been made of conceptualising local government’s dual-purpose role. The political and service provision roles of local government tend to be kept separate for purposes of scholarly investigation. Local government is synonymous with service provision, but its governing role is often overlooked or downplayed by higher levels of government. Is local government as a politically representative institution merely a quaint and unnecessary hangover from the past? The paper reports the findings of research conducted among councillors and assesses their perspective on the legitimacy of local government to make decisions and to govern locally.