Local Democracy

Introduction

• The founding principle of local government is that citizens have the right to influence the decisions that affect their lives and their communities. Sometimes they may exercise this right through personalized services and sometimes by influencing local services – for example, by having a direct say over how their neighborhood is policed. And sometimes it will be through lobbying their council.

But a key way in which local citizens are able to exercise that right is theirability to elect a strong local council which can lead and shape their area

LG has to be based on Local democracy

But To what extent LG represent Peoples’ preferences and rights .

Political Decentralization Arrangements

• There is a large and untapped pool of people who would like more say in what happens in their area. It is right that both central and local government do more to give them greater direct control over the decisions that affect their lives and their community and councils are doing much to help them explore the opportunities available to engage and participate. But we must also recognize that in today’s time poor society, citizens only have limited time to give.

• So councils must be fully equipped with the powers they need to act decisively and effectively on behalf of their citizens: the powers and ability to scrutinize, influence and shape other services. This is a much stronger role for local government, placing it firmly at the centre of decision making in their community.

LSG is based on representation

Legitimacy and Accountability

A. Representation

Legitimacy is based on democratic election, but it also correlated with the accountability of LG, depending on the remoteness of the councils to the population , on the scope of the electorate and on the role of political parties.

1. Electoral Systems and Political parties

Local elections tend to follow the pattern adopted in national elections except in the case of smaller communities.

Local government structure in UK

• Across the country, local governmental bodies are organized into a mixture of one-tier and two-tier systems. How local system is arranged will depend upon where you live.

Mayor of London – Every 4 years Makes plans for London’s future and is responsible for London’s transport, economic development, culture, healthy living, police and fire brigade. 25 Members of Greater London Authority – Every 4 years

Keeps check on Mayor

Local Councillors – 600 Councillors across UK London – Borough or Metropolitan District Council (Birmingham, Manchester,Leeds and Liverpool)England – County Council or District CouncilScotland or Wales – Unitary authorityParish, town and community councils – 10 000

County and district councils

• In most of England, there are two levels: a county council and a district council. County councils cover large areas and provide most public services, including schools, social services, and public transportation.

• Each county is divided into several districts. District councils cover smaller areas and provide more local services, including council housing, gyms and leisure facilities, local planning, recycling and trash collection. District councils with borough or city status may be called borough councils or city councils instead of district council, but their role is exactly the same.

Unitary authorities

• In most large towns and cities, and in some small counties, there will be just one level of local government responsible for all local services. These are called a 'unitary authority'. Depending where they are in the country, these may be called metropolitan district councils, borough councils, city councils, county councils, or district councils.

• In London, each borough is a unitary authority, but the Greater London Authority (the Mayor and Assembly) provides London-wide government with responsibility for certain services like transport and police.

Cont.,

• In April 2009, the government introduced unitary governments in seven regions in England; reducing 44 local authorities down to just nine. The idea was to simplify the system, as local residents were increasingly confused about which local authority was responsible for local services.

• In Scotland there is a unitary system with one level of local government. In Northern Ireland, there are local councils, but most services are carried out by other organizations.

Town and parish councils

• In some parts of England there are also town and parish councils, covering a smaller area. In Wales, they are called community councils.

• They're responsible for services like allotments, public toilets, parks and ponds, war memorials, and local halls and community centers. They are sometimes described as the third tier of local government.

• In Scotland there are community councils with fewer powers. There is no equivalent in Northern Ireland.

local election

• In a local election, They vote for the councilors who run for their local services.

• Councilors are elected for a term of four years, though in some areas they're not all elected at the same time, so elections may take place more often.

• Local elections will take place in some areas of England on 5 May 2011.

How to vote for local authorities

• The way they vote for local councilors is similar to voting for Members of Parliament in a general election. In England and Wales, the candidate who gets the most votes wins – this is called a 'first-past-the-post' voting system.

• When voting in a local election, the ballot paper will list all the candidates standing to be a councilor in each area. Everyone may be asked to vote for more than one candidate, depending on where they live.

• In Scotland and Northern Ireland, voters are asked to rank the candidates in order of preference. This is called the 'single transferable vote' system, a form of proportional representation.

Generally

• Councilors are elected by a majority vote for a single seat , and a single ballot.

• The result is that party composition may be very unrepresentative of the balance of voters throughout the local authority area.

Sweden

• National and Local elections are held on the same day .• All elections are based on proportional representation.• This gives the political parties more influence over the

composition of the Local councils.• The most elaborate party rules on the nomination of

candidates are those of the conservative party which has an internal nomination procedure with secret ballot by party members.

France

• It is the most complicated.• For each level of Local government , there is a

different electoral system , and several at the municipal level, national pp dominate local elections too .

• At the municipal level, there are 3 different electoral systems.

a. In communes under 3500 inhabitants : any candidate of the list is elected if he has won the absolute majority.

b. In communes of less 2500 inhabitants : individuals or incomplete lists can run for elections.

c. In communes with more than 3500 it is a 2 round ballot.

• At the department level, G. councilors are elected on a uninominal majority ballot.

• At the regional level, R. councilors are elected on a proportional representation.

• In France , the local organization of pp is based on the level of the department.

Hungary

• Municipal council under 10000 inhabitants is elected according to plurinominal majority rule.

• In cities over 10000 inhabitants two electoral systems are adopted : ½ of the councilors are elected through proportional representation, and the other half is elected directly in constituencies according to a majority uninominal ballot.

Poland

• Municipal councils are carried out in a single round through uninominal majority ballot in communes up to 40000 inhabitants.

• In constituencies of more than 40000 proportional representation is applied.

• The main point of the 1998 election law is that elections to local councils in municipalities with fewer than twenty thousand residents are won by majority, but in municipalities with more than twenty thousand residents a proportional system is implemented.

• Under the new election law, candidates for councilor can be nominated by (1) voters (in municipalities with fewer than twenty thousand residents, twenty-five signatures are needed to nominate a candidate; in municipalities with over twenty thousand residents, one hundred fifty petitioners are required), (2) social organizations and (3) political parties.

• The election law states that the basic territorial unit for local council elections is the constituency, which numbers between five hundred and three thousand residents. Constituencies form electoral districts. One electoral district (ward) is represented by between one and five councilors in municipalities with fewer than twenty thousand residents (in practice, usually one councilor per district) and by five to ten councilors in municipalities with more than twenty thousand residents.

• Neither Hungary nor Poland provides for D. elections to the council at the intermediate level.

2. Scope of the electorate

The voter’s right determines eligibility since each voter may run for election , subject to exceptions intended to avoid conflicts of interest and secure the independent position of the councilors.

The question of foreigners voter rights

France

• Hot debate for year , where left pp support and right pp oppose it.

Sweden , Hungary and Poland

• In Sweden, foreign residents are entitled to vote to local elections (if they’ve been registered 3y before the elections)

• In Hungary, foreign residents who live permanently may vote to local elections ,but may not be candidate.

• In Poland, only Polish citizens may vote at local elections.

3. Remoteness and Propinquity

This has to do with the size of LG, the number of elected councilors and the duration of mandates , as well as with the electoral and party system

France

Sweden

• Local councils are free to determine the Nb. Of seats they have but not less than a min. fixed by the law according to the population.

Legitimacy and Accountability

B. Direct citizen participation

More direct citizen participation in LG is increasingly considered necessary to make LG more responsive to the population.

UK

• Local authorities are required to consult the business community before passing the budget or levying new taxes , which enhanced the cooperation between the local government and citizens.

France

• Since the 70’s , Direct Participation has been promoted 1st in the field of planning and education.

1.The planning law has provided for the right of registered associations to be consulted on land-use and structural plans.

2.Parents elected representatives to secondary school board , their associations appoint representatives to education councils.

Sweden

• Participation is achieved through pp, or organization representing various groups within the local communities.

• Special pensioners’ councils , immigrant councils among others are a common form of participation.

• The Swedish legislation doesn’t contain any list of issues on which referendums may be held.

Hungary

• The municipal council must organize a local referendum on the merging or division of communes.

• The council may also organize a referendum on any matter within its competence to confirm or approve a municipal regulation.

• Compared with the reluctance vis-à-vis the direct participation of citizens in decision making in most WE countries, former socialist countries seems to consider that institutions of direct democracy as basic element of LSG.

Balance of Power

• All countries have developed their own institutional models of LG; the models differ on 2main points:

a. The relationship between councils and executives.b. The relationship between elected officials and

professional officers.

• Despite differences within the model , there is a general tendency towards more political leadership, both with respect to the council and professional officers .

1. Councils and Political leadership

• In England , all powers are exercised exclusively by the elected councils.

• Councils operate through committees which supervise departments or groups of departments.

• Departments are headed by professional executives led by a non-political chief executive. “There is no division of power between executive and representative”

Sweden

• Municipal and county councils are vested with all local government powers as the UK, but the committee system includes an executive committee permitting a stronger political leadership to emerge.

• The new LGA leaves more discretion to the council to determine its committee structure on which the management of local affaires is based.

2. Elected officials and Professional officers.

• Very different traditions exist within LG systems regarding the relationship between elected officials and public officers employed in LG.

• The Common point in all LG systems is the proximity between politicians and professional officers.

• The long term tendency toward the professionalization of local employees instead of patronage

• The relationship between the central and local levels is a basic factor and an indicator of the extent of democratization and modernization of a country’s government. A somewhat strained relationship between local authorities and the central state is apparent in most of the countries compared.

• The variety of local traditions and state constitutional provisions leads to two main types of relations between the central and local levels with regard to the method of determining the scope of self-government powers: (1) relations based on the general clause and (2) relations based on enumeration.

• The balance of power between elected politicians and professional officers is still at stake.

UK

• LG has a very strong professional tradition which is much stronger in Local Government than in Central Government where senior positions have tended to be reserved for general administrators.

• LG staff are appointed by the individual local authority. Senior ranks are appointed by the full council .

France

• France has been historically characterized by a strong centralization and a voluntarist state represented by some prestigious top civil servants.

• In this context, locally, politicians did not have a real power to produce or implement their own public policies.

• In the 80’s, important institutional reforms and ideological changes have questioned this statist pattern and have set up a new balance of power between the state and the local authorities.

• Nevertheless, the state is always an important actor in the French political administrative system.

• The current relations between local politicians and state field services are various according to the territory they take place. And, whereas local government in France is not yet stabilized, a model of co-administration seems to emerge.

Decentralization: the end of a statist pattern in the 80’s

• During the Mitterrand years, successive government’s policies of deregulation and privatization have progressively deprived the state of many of its traditional interventionist instruments.

• Planning becomes less effective, less ambitious and more politicized. Ministries have become partners rather than leaders of industry. The enterprises become more independent from the Central State and develop direct relations with the elected local authorities.

• The political elite, that is, the local notables who were also often-national political figures -as a result of the cumul des mandats-, has benefited from the decentralisation reform.

• When executive power was shifted from the prefect to the presidents or regional or general councils and the tutelle, or a priori review power, over the mayors was abolished, the relationship between the prefect, as the representative of central government, and local elected officials changed.

• The prefect has become more a partner of local governments than a commander, and elected officials have become much more independent from the central government. In short, co-operative relations continued, but with local government leading and the state following.

The influence of the local political context in the recomposed relations between the state

representatives and local politicians

• It’s admitted -including by the central state- that the local level is the most appropriate scale to co-ordinate public policies. This attitude in reflected in the recent law on the Territorial Administration of the Republic (ATR), 6 February 1992, which requires that, wherever possible, the normal method of delivering central government policies should be through regional and local institutions of the state, namely, local government.

• This ATR law carries a new conception of the territory: It recognises differences according to the territory and to their socio-economical characteristics, and so it authorises positive discriminations.

Understanding the variety of relations between politicians and civil servants

The urban one and the rural one:

• In fact, a mayor of a commune of 400 inhabitants will not weight as a representative mayor of an agglomeration of 250000 inhabitants faced with the prefect or the Departmental Director of the Equipement. Moreover, current works of political science insist on the mutations of urban governments and on the emergence of urban governance

Cities become real actors for all the public action. The economical development appears as the priority. It is essential for a commune to attract enterprises, and by there, to reduce the unemployment and so to obtain fiscal resources that will finance public equipment. The municipal teams look for potential investors. For that, it is necessary to develop the brand image of the city: investments in prestigious operations, subway or tram, and technological pole. What is also important is the geographical situation. It induces a major interest for the big infrastructures (expressways, TGV, airports).

• The development of the intercommunality, wanted by the last governments and sustained by the central state engenders some fears in the state field services. The major stake consists in not undergo the development of the rural intercommunality.

• In fact, the small communes, grouped, could override the state by constituting their own services that would substitute to the Equipment services. Thus, the development of the intercommunality really questions the territorial organization of the state, and particularly its local services.

• Current administrative reorganizations have various forms and different extent. The objective is to adapt the organization of state field services according to the specificities of the local context and the needs of the politicians. Local responses, elaborated by the direction committees of the DDE, appear: this change “ by the bottom up ”, by the state field services, under the constraint, is new in France where the change is traditionally top-down.

• According to the place, the relations between local state and local politicians are completely shaped by the local characteristics, notably the political climate, the structure of the territory, the culture of the civil servants. We chose to evoke, quickly and caricaturaly, two cases of cities: Orléans and Rennes, comparable in socio-economical terms.

• In Orléans, the relations between the state and the elected representatives are stretched, indeed conflicting. On the one hand, there is a fragmentation between the local authorities and, on the other hand, there exist among the local state, between the Prefect and the Departmentral Director of the Equipement.

• Vague and contradictory mutations are observable in the French politico-administrative system. Through the example of the ministry of équipement, décentralisation and déconcentration reforms indicate the reorganisation of the two elements of the politico-administrative system, and not the disappearance of one of it that benefit to the other.

• This Territorial Administration of the Republic, that juxtapose local state services and decentralise local authorities, is wanted by the state itself. The state public law serves as a vehicle for this reform that is considered as the way to solve the problem of the differentiation of the political system and the need of integration of public policies.

• Thus, the current recomposition of the French state manhandles the old juridical borders on the territory, between the local one and the central one, and between the decentralisation and the déconcentration.

• In many European countries, similar interrogations about the transformations of the place of the state are emerging. Because of the “ globalisation, ” one explores new ways to think the state and some vast reflections question very assured dichotomies -political/administrative, State/society-, and show that new regulations exist in the internal order and in the international one. This could give rise to “a polycentric ”governance, that is to say, to a pluralist and open government.

• The State and the institutions are studied through the prism of the “ crisis ”. Many works are dedicated to the place of the state in “ post-industrials” societies, to the crisis of representation, to the finality of the governments, to the impossible social direction by the state. Some studies develop on the limits of the state intervention.

Public Participation in Decision Making in CEE

• There is no better test for evaluating the level of democracy in a country than by looking at people’s participation in the government and representation of all population groups.

• Throughout the Central and Eastern European region the population directly elects the local representative bodies of self-government.

Local referendum

• In addition, the constitutions of all countries under review have established the principle of direct democracy at the local level. The most popular form of direct democracy is local referendum on issues of self-government and community affairs, which are stipulated by law.

• Local referendum is conducted on issues for which public opinion is considered to have a significant impact, particularly on the scope of activities of local government authorities and on matters concerning state decisions in the field of territorial and local government organization.

Other forms ofdirect democracy

• Consultative referendum, local meetings (gatherings) of citizens, citizens’ petitions and citizens’ initiatives—vary from country to country. The right of citizens to attend the sessions of the local council also is considered a form of direct democracy.

• Recent practice of local governance does not involve reporting by the elected representatives to the local bodies or to the public concerning their activities. Even though such a requirement could increase the responsibility of the local elected representatives and improve their relations with citizens, it faces a negative attitude connected with similar practices that were misused during the years of the communist regime.

The local self-government systems in all the countries presented possess the

following commoncharacteristics

• election of local representatives by popular vote and appointment of local officials and other staff by local authorities without the interference of central authorities;

• a broad range of competencies, including those concerning local taxes and economic and social development;

• considerable autonomy of local government units, including financial autonomy;

• a local council as a representative body that is the main authority in the local government and that embodies the principle of local autonomy;

• a chief executive authority—the mayor—elected by the population or by the local council, who exercises general competency; exceptionally, executive functions are shared with an executive committee and its head;

• an extensive system of administrative and executive organs, each in charge of a separate competency and structured, as a principle, in accordance with the central government division of executive functions;

• a single-tiered local self-government system (sometimes doubled with self-government forms on the middle level);

• large municipalities with administrative substructures, often combined with submunicipal, partial self-government.

• Under the constitutions of these countries, municipalities have general competence for matters of particular local interest. Only where the law provides concurrent or exclusive powers to another authority in municipal matters are municipal powers removed or shared with other authorities.

• Regulations divide responsibilities among the different bodies within local authorities, although the municipal council or assembly has ultimate responsibility for the most important matters.

• The elected representative body of local self-government—the municipal council or assembly— is the only authority at the local level that may adopt normative acts of local significance.