TRENDS IN PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: PART 1 – LOCAL GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVES VIVIEN LOWNDES, LAWRENCE PRATCHETT AND GERRY STOKER INTRODUCTION Enhanced public participation lies at the heart of the Labour government’s modernization agenda for British local government. As the white paper Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People states, ‘the Government wishes to see consultation and participation embedded into the culture of all councils . . . and undertaken across a wide range of each council’s responsibilities’ (DETR 1998, para. 4.6). Such bold statements suggest that the modernization programme is introducing fundamental change into local democratic practices: change which is addressed as much towards altering cultures and attitudes within local government as it is towards creating new opportunities for democratic participation. Yet the belief that local government should involve the public or ‘get closer to the community’ is hardly new. The history of British local government is littered with experiments in public participation and consultation (Gyford 1991; Burns et al. 1994; Stoker 1997). This article analyses the prospects for change through an examination of current practice and attitudes within local government. It presents findings from research commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Trans- port and the Regions (DETR) to fill gaps in existing knowledge about the extent and nature of participation exercises in local government (Lowndes et al. 1998a). The study is unique in that it provides, in effect, a census of local government activity to enhance public participation. Survey-based analysis was complemented by qualitative research on the experience and aspirations of local government members and officers regarding public par- ticipation – both positive and negative. Consequently, this research comp- lements existing studies of new developments in local participation which have tended to be largely descriptive and uncritical, focusing upon examples of ‘good practice’ and lacking any statistical underpinning regarding general trends (Stewart 1995, 1996 and 1997; LGA/LGMB 1998; New Economics Foundation 1999). Vivien Lowndes is Professor of Local Government Studies and Lawrence Pratchett is Reader in Local Democracy in the Department of Public Policy at De Montfort University, Leicester. Gerry Stoker is Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde. Public Administration Vol. 79 No. 1, 2001 (205–222)  Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2001, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.