Welsh Journals

In the first article of this series, William A Robson, B Sc (Econ), PhD., LLM, Professor of Public Administra- tion in the University of London, discusses the serious problems created in running local government in the middle of the twentieth century with machinery devised for nineteenth century conditions. He takes as his theme the special problems of the great city of today. I will illustrate my theme in terms of the great city, that highly characteristic product of our own time. The great city as we know it is a very modern phenomenon which is nowadays to be found all over the world: in the new countries no less than in the old ones; in the West and in the East; in the under-developed as well as in the more highly developed countries; in those which have democratic govern- ment and in those under Communist rule or some other form of dictatorship. Modern science and technology have enabled the great city to come into existence, and for its inhabitants to live at a relatively high standard of living. The huge populations which live and work in London, Paris, New York, Toronto, Moscow, or Calcutta, could not be kept alive for a single day without the modern means of transport by which food supplies are brought into the city, and the refrigeration plants by which it is kept in a condition fit for human consumption. The water supply, the sewage disposal system, the electricity and gas services, telecommunications, and the swift suburban passenger transport services by train, underground, motor-bus or motor-car have <4 A part of the City of London today Local Government I-The Great City of Today PROFESSOR WILLIAM A ROBSON THE constitutional framework of local government was laid down in the nineteenth century. The structure was completed in 1894 when the district and parish councils were established, and in London in 1899 when the metropolitan borough councils were set up. This was on the eve of the Oil Age. Improvements in transport and communications have trans- formed social, economic and political life, but we are still running local government with machinery devised for nineteenth- century conditions. This has created some serious problems.