Fundamentals of Business

Local level

Local level
Local Government

Towns, cities and rural areas in Britain are administered by a system of local government or councils, usually referred to as local authorities.

Local authorities are responsible for providing a range of community services in the area, such as education, planning, environmental health, passenger transport, the fire services, social services, refuse collection, libraries and housing.

Administrative Accountability

Internal rules and norms as well as some independent commission are mechanisms to hold civil servant within the administration of government accountable. Within department or ministry, firstly, behaviour is bounded by rules and regulations; secondly, civil servants are subordinates in a hierarchy and accountable to the superiors. Nonetheless, there are independent "watchdog" units to scrutinize and hold departments accountable; legitimacy of these commissions is built upon their independency, as it avoids any conflicts of interest. Apart from internal checks, some of "watchdog" units accept complaints from citizens, bridging government and society to hold civil servants accountable to citizens, but not merely governmental departments.

Bureaucracy is synonymous with local authorities.
Political environment
Foreign policy

A country's foreign policy is a set of goals that seeks to outline how that particular country will interact with other countries of the world and, to a lesser extent, non-state actors. Foreign policies generally are designed to help protect a country's national interests, national security, ideological goals, and economic prosperity. This can occur as a result of peaceful cooperation with other nations, or through aggression, war, and exploitation. It may be assumed that foreign policy is as ancient as the human society itself. The twentieth century saw a rapid rise in the importance of foreign policy, with virtually every nation in the world now being able to interact with one another in some diplomatic form.

Nominally, creating foreign policy is usually the job of the head of government and the foreign minister (or equivalent). In some countries the legislature also has considerable oversight. As an exception, in France, Finland and in America, it is the head of state who is responsible for foreign policy, while the head of government mainly deals with internal policy.

In fact, foreign policy is a product of pressure from various groups and classes, political as well as economic. In many countries, foreign policy ranks high on the list of factors that influence public opinion.