Financialization and Local Statecraft

Reviews / Votes

Reductions in local government spending since 2010 will have long-term consequences for citizens' perception of the State, but also for the UK's constitutional settlement. Financialization and Local Statecraft is an important examination of how local government has responded to the Treasury's particular, lop-sided, approach to balancing the books * Tony Travers, London School of Economics and Political Science * This is a fantastic book which examines local government's entanglement with financialization since the onset of austerity in 2010. By exploring the theory of local statecraft, Pike shows that what local government does, how it is funded, and how it manages its financial affairs are matters of vital importance. The book examines the contradictions and tensions between local and national government, governance, finance, and politics. In the end, the book is not just about financialization of UK local governments, but of how the constraints of governance and fiscal stress produce multiple outcomes and responses. Pike's nuanced analysis will be of interest to urban and regional geographers, political economists, and local government scholars and practitioners around the world. * Mia Gray, University of Cambridge * Pike shines when describing and explaining the variation of local government strategies adopted within England. He argues that a combination of politics, economic conditions, and organizational cultures determines whether local governments have the capacity to resist the overtures of those seeking to profit from the public fisc. Financialization and Local Statecraft is both an excellent primer on public administration in the UK and a provocative, timely interpretation of trends transforming a sector previously associated with caution and restraint. * Rachel Weber, University of Illinois at Chicago * Local government plays a formative role in shaping the conditions of people's everyday lives. In England, the past decade or so has witnessed deep-seated transformation in local governments' powers and practices, rooted in particular in shifting relations with various financial actors, assets and attributes. Andy Pike proves an engaging and informed guide to this complex but crucial political-economic terrain. * Brett Christophers, Uppsala University *