‘Modernising’ local democracy offers a new perspective on old problems. The need to involve people and boost electoral participation has long been recognised. Equally, the desire to improve the decision-making process has been a continuing theme in postwar political debates. The novelty of New Labour's agenda lies not in the particular proposals put forward, but in the comprehensiveness of the overall programme: electoral procedures and arrangements, mechanisms for public involvement and consultation, and new structures for local authority decision making, combine to promise ‘modernisation’.

This is an ambitious package, but does it amount to real substantive change? Or is it merely symbolic politics – a gesture designed to enhance the image of a government at the cutting edge of change? Linking local government reform to the third way, as Tony Blair did in his Institute for Public Policy Research pamphlet, Leading the way: A new vision for local government (Blair, 1998b), evokes some justified scepticism. For, while the third way can be read as providing a strategy for changed times, it may equally be criticised for lacking substance – as an amorphous political project. The question of whether the new politics of local government should be seen as symbol or substance requires two questions to be answered: Does it address a real problem? And is there a serious intention to deal with it?

The answer to the first question will be apparent from the discussion set out in the first half of this book. There is indeed a real problem, as the foundations of local democracy have eroded over the last 100 years – nowhere has this been more apparent than in the contemporary popular disdain for local government. As Chapters Three to Five show, the loss of trust and faith in governmental institutions has undermined local democracy to the extent that, today, few take an active interest in local politics and scarcely any would consider standing for election to their local council.

There is, to this extent, a curious symmetry between the present situation and that of the late 19th century: now, as then, the idea that there is a crisis of democratisation is gaining currency.