Example public administration dissertation topic 8:

The quangoisation of housing – A review of policy and practice post-2000.

In the mid-1950s, the number of rented council-owned properties exceeded those provided by the private sector. Today, not only have the number of private rents increased (to a level now unmatched in percentage terms since prior to the ‘right to buy scheme’ under Margaret Thatcher), but also the role of councils has been largely replaced by housing associations and other non-elected bodies. Using both primary and secondary data this dissertation evaluates how the voices of tenants have been transformed as a consequence through such changes in the housing market and does so by interviewing long-term residents in Bromsgrove, who have seen the care and maintenance of their homes transferred from council control to housing association over the last 20 years.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Kersting, N., Caulfield, J., Nickson, R. A., Olowu, D. and Wollmann, H. (2009). Local governance reform in global perspective. Wiesbaden: Verlag.
• R�cke, A. (2008). Participatory budgeting in the UK: From the “grassroots” to the national agenda. Manchester: The Participatory Budgeting Unit.
• Wollmann, H. (2000). Local government systems: from historic divergence towards convergence? Great Britain, France, and Germany as comparative cases in point. Environment and Planning C, 18(1), pp. 33-56.