PARTY COMPETITION IN ENGLISH LOCAL-GOVERNMENT - AN EMPIRICAL-ANALYSISOF ENGLISH COUNCILS, 1974-1994

Party competition is an important mechanism for securing responsivenes s and accountability in local government. Two measures of competition are identified and applied to all local party systems in England: domi nance, which refers to the strength of the ruling party in the present ; and volatility, which concerns changes in party strength in the past . The evidence shows that, on either measure, competition is strongest in the non-metropolitan counties and weakest in the London boroughs a nd metropolitan districts. By contrast, the two measures yield contrad ictory longitudinal results on the extent of competition: dominance ha s generally declined, but so has volatility. Thus conclusions on tempo ral trends in competition depend on the relative effects of dominance and volatility on local politicians' behaviour.