Making a reality of community governance. Structuring government-voluntary sector relationships at the local level

Abstract

This article examines the emerging rhetoric of 'community governance' under the current Labour government and its import for local government-voluntary sector relationships. It explores the continuities and differences of this with that of the previous Conservative government and evaluates the extent to which this is a genuinely new perspective on these relationships. It concludes by offering a conceptual framework with which to understand these relationships and highlights the political and managerial challenges which must be faced if 'community governance' is to become more than simple rhetoric.