Co-production, Co-operation or Con-fusion

Traditional local representative democracy has been under pressure for some time to not only become more responsive to citizen engagement, but to work more closely with communities, citizens and other partners in co-producing public services (Stoker, 2004, Bovaird, 2007, Ansell & Gash 2008). Indeed, such pressure is both top down and bottom up, with local government experiencing demands from both assertive communities and central or regional government to ensure new and imaginative ways of shaping public services by shifting to new models of design (Pollitt, and Bouchaert, 2004.O’Flynn, 2007, Sweeting and Copus. 2012). While considerable attention has been given to the processes and practices of co-production and partnership working at the local level in the delivery of services, less attention has been given to the consequence for elected local government and the role of the councillor in particular. The council and councillors while democratically legitimised decision makers face competition over the shaping of local public policy from citizens, communities and a complex array of partners and other service providers (see, Sorensen and Torfing, 2005, Lowndes and Sullivan, 2008). Indeed, they must navigate a complex and confused series of relationship when it comes to the provision of services or the oversight of services provided by others. The paper, based on research across English local government addresses the following questions: • What strategies do councillors develop to influence and shape the decisions about the provision of public services taken by other local players? • How do councillors hold to account those responsible for providing public services? • How can councillors share legitimacy with others that are involved in the co-production of services and is ‘shared legitimacy’ a viable or realistic concept in the design of public services? • What are the long term consequences for local political governance and councillors in particular, of the developing and continuing trend toward co-production of public services? • Is there a future for elected local government? The paper will provide a challenge to the idea that co-production is an alternative to traditional representative democracy by offering a defence of the role of councillors in decisions about public services. It will do that by asserting the need for legitimacy and accountability in service provision and by developing a conceptual framework within which to explore changes within local representative democracy.