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Party Control, Party Competition and Public Service Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Abstract

This article assesses party effects on the performance of public services. A policy-seeking model, hypothesizing that left and right party control affects performance, and an instrumental model, where all parties strive to raise performance, are presented. The framework also suggests a mixed model in which party effects are contingent on party competition, with parties raising performance as increasing party competition places their control of government at increasing risk. These models are tested against panel data on English local governments’ party control and public service performance. The results question the traditional account of left and right parties, showing a positive relationship between right-wing party control and performance that is contingent on a sufficiently high level of party competition. The findings suggest left–right models should be reframed for the contemporary context.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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55 These findings also hold when change to Conservative party control is disaggregated into those observations where the change is from control by another party (four instances) and where the change is from no overall control (thirteen instances).

56 Each instance can be described in full: Plymouth went from Conservative to Labour control in 2003 with CSP rising from 50 to 52. Oldham went from No Overall Control in 2002 to Labour majority control in 2003 with CSP rising from 65 to 72. Sheffield went from No Overall Control to Labour majority control in 2003 with CSP rising from 65 to 73. Finally, Hartlepool went from No Overall Control to Labour majority control in 2004 with its CSP of 87 falling to 82. This conclusion holds when the local performance improvements are compared against the national rising trend on the CSP, Plymouth and Hartlepool being worse and Oldham and Sheffield slightly better.

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