Keele Research Repository

The themes developed in this study address themselves to the following questions:
1) The degree to which local interest groups are able to gain access to decision-makers and participate in the making and implementation of public policy.
2) The nature of the conditions governing the admission and exclusion of groups from public policy-making process and the costs and benefits of access and exclusion to groups and government.
3) The distinction between public policy-making and policy maintenance and the implications for group access.
4) The significance of the essentially 'defensive' nature of policy-maker ideology and the consequent need by public bodies to control disturbance within the political system.
5) The relation between governmental structures and their environment, giving rise to the relative autonomy of local governmental structures.
These issues are examined in relation to three case-studies dealing with different public policy contexts dealing with the role 'of black ethnic minority groups in Wolverhampton, the Residents' Association in Clay Cross and the role of local action groups on the Stoke-Derby Trunk Road issue.