The Politics of Partnership

Abstract

The prevailing discourse on local governance is that local authorities are subordinate both to central government and to a plethora of local partners. While Manchester City Council (MCC) remains subordinate to central government, its status enables it to exert influence over the urban domain within its boundaries and to act as an intermediate organization between its local partners and the core executive in Whitehall. This reflects the influence that MCC has been able to maintain over the process of urban regeneration within its territory despite the other structures involved, and the creation of the Urban Regeneration Company (URC) of New East Manchester (NEM). MCC may possess singular characteristics but its political style of `community leadership' need not be unique. While the local state has ceded some of its activities to other agencies in this time of multi-level governance it still enjoys a powerful overarching control that can be characterized as metagovernance.