Mayoral governance in Bristol: Has it made a difference?

Sweeting, David; Hambleton, Robin

Abstract

This chapter provides an assessment of the impact of introducing a mayoral model of governance into the City of Bristol, UK in 2012. It situates the Bristol reform in context, introduces a conceptual framework for understanding urban leadership and then uses the framework to assess the performance of the mayoral model. The analysis provides a ‘before’ and ‘after’ evaluation covering the 2012-15 period. Surveys of the views of citizens and civic leaders suggest that the model has provided a platform for highly visible, outgoing civic leadership and many believe that the mayor has delivered a clear vision for the future of the city. However, public perceptions of trust in and timeliness of decision making improved only very slightly. Many councillors feel that the model, as deployed under Mayor Ferguson (Mayor from 2012-16), has concentrated too much power in the hands of one individual. The chapter presents methods that other researchers studying change in urban governance may find helpful.

• Publication Date: Mar 15, 2017
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 19-34
• Book Title: Directly Elected Mayors in Urban Governance: Impact and practice
• ISBN: 9781447327011
• Keywords: urban governance, elected mayors, city leadership
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/896876
• Publisher URL: http://policypress.co.uk/directly-elected-mayors-in-urban-governance