Restructuring Government: The Abandonment of Metropolitan Government

Abstract

Metropolitan or tiered government that was championed by many academics and practitioners as the answer to governance problems besetting metropolitan areas has been discredited and abandoned by most of the countries that instituted this form of regional government. The general movement to abandon tiered government commenced in the 1980s. The countries that instituted tiered or metropolitan governments, some for not much more than 10 years, found them not to be the answer to their regional problems. Great Britain was one of the leaders in the movement to eliminate the tiered structure. Britain had followed the Toronto model and had established a metropolitan tier over its major metropolitan areas, with the Greater London Council established in 1965 and tiers over six other metropolitan areas established in 1974. In 1986 these upper tiers were abolished by the Thatcher government. These changes were made without a vote of affirmation by the residents. There were political considerations in the abolition of these tiers of government as none of the governments were controlled by the Thatcher government, but there was also a desire to reduce the scope and autonomy of local government and to further centralize power. There was little support for these metropolitan tiers and their passing was not contested by the constituent governments (Norris, 2001).