LEICESTER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A classic text that is widely regarded to be the definitive guide to local government in the UK has been translated into Chinese.

Professor David Wilson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Business and Law at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, wrote the first edition of the book more than 20 years ago.

But now, Local Government in the United Kingdom - co-authored by Chris Game from the University of Birmingham - has been translated into Chinese for the first time.

"My publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, was contacted out of the blue by the Peking University Press - one of the most prestigious academic publishers in China," said Professor Wilson.

"It might be hard to believe that there would be a market for a book about UK local government in China, but there is plenty of interest right across the world in issues such as accountability and decentralisation.

"All systems of government face the same dilemma of central direction versus local autonomy. The question is: how much power do you give local government units - and how much is kept at the centre?

"The situation in the UK is in many ways completely different to that in China, yet we're both grappling with similar issues of decentralisation, albeit in totally different contexts."

It is hoped that interest in the book will be boosted in December this year when Professor Wilson flies to China to deliver a series of lectures entitled 'Local Government: Learning Across Frontiers' at Nanjing University in Jiangsu Province.

Several thousand copies of Local Government in the United Kingdom - including a Korean translation - have been sold across the world. The latest UK edition was published in March this year.

Contacts

DMU Media Office
Madeleine Redway
+44 (0) 116 207 8353
news@dmu.ac.uk