6. THE NEW POLITICAL CULTURE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND

This paper charts new ground by first considering a paradigmatic shift in the nature of political decision making, driven by globalization and post-industrial trends. Second, it uses an original methodology to identify political culture and policy focus - a content analysis of some 60 websites of local authorities across Britain. We hope that the substantive results as well as the methodological lessons about how to study these issues systematically may interest British readers as well as persons confronting similar issues around the world. We particularly recommend the website analysis methodology as a relatively inexpensive procedure for conducting research globally. Many local governments worldwide now have websites - for instance over 80% of Korean local governments do, as Korean researchers reported in starting a similar content analysis.