Local MPs
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local MPs, are members of the government that are specific to a particular locality. More particularly, it is a form of government that has no share in sovereinty, and is thus entirely sub-ordinate to central authority or, in a federal system, to state or regional authority. This level of local mps is in fact universal, being found in federal and cofederal systems as well as in unitary ones. In America for example there are over eighty thousand units of local government with over ten million employees. However what makes a local mp particularly important in unitary systems is that in most cases their local government is the only form of government outside the centre.
It would nevertheless be a mistake to assume that the constitutional subordination of local government means that it is politically irrelevant. The very ubiquity of local government reflects the fact that it is both administratively necessary and , because it is close to the people, easily intelligible. Morepver, elected local mp's have a measure of democratic legitimacy that enables them to extend theri formal powers and responsibilities. This often means that central-local relationships are conducted through a process of bargaining and negotiation rather than diktat from above. The balance between the centre and the periphery is further influenced by factors such as the political culture and the nature of the party system. For instance the growing tendency for mps and local politics to be politicised, in the sense that national parties have increasingly dominated local politics, has brought with it greater centralisation. In the absence of the kind of constitutional framework that federalism provides, the preservation of local autonomy relies, to a crucial extent, on self restraint by the centre. This tends to mean that the degree of decentralisation in unitary systems varies significantly, both over time and from country to country. This can be illustrated by the contrasting experiences of the UK and France.
The United Kingdom traditionally possessed a relatively decentralised local mps system, with local authorities exercising significant discretion within a legal framework laid down by parliament. Indeed, respect for local democracy was long seen as a feature of the United Kingdomsunwritten constitution. The expansion of the states economic and social role in the post war period, however, meant that local authorities were increasingly charged with resposibility for delivering public services on behalf of central government.