Repoliticising and redemocratising local democracy and the public realm: Why we need councillors and councils

There has been a gradual decline in the status of local government within the English governance framework as a result of central unwillingness to see it as either local or government. The centre has been aided in the depoliticising of local government by literature which minimises, ignores or seeks to remove any element of the political from local government. The paper reviews the process by which local government has been delocalised and depoliticised in the English context. It goes on to suggest a new settlement between the localities and the centre and the way in which a 'localised polity' may emerge.