GEORGE BOYNE is Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Public Services Research Unit at Cardiff Business School, University of Wales. He was previously Professor of Public Policy at the University of Glamorgan where he worked from 1980 to 1995, and a lecturer at the Robert Gordon University in his native Aberdeen from 1978 to 1980. He has published over 50 articles in academic journals mainly in the areas of local policy variation and local government structure, finance and performance. His other work includes Constraints, Choices and Public Policies.