Local councillor recruitment operates in such a way that it favours the possibility for individuals with certain characteristics to enter and to remain in public office. One of the central questions ...then becomes: what are these characteristics and how do they influence the selection chances of these specific individuals? The aim of this contribution is to comparatively study a number of these questions for the population of local councillors in Europe. It evokes questions on the similarity or divergence of social biases in political recruitment in different local political systems. Do the same social background characteristics distinguish ‘the many’ from ‘the few’ in all countries under study? Do certain patterns in the ‘skewing’ of social background emerge and to what extent can they be linked to different institutional histories in local government? As such this study is one of the first to structurally scrutinise local councillors in such a systematic variety of political systems.
Local councillor recruitment operates in such a way that it favours the possibility for individuals with certain characteristics to enter and to remain in public office. One of the central questions ...then becomes: what are these characteristics and how do they influence the selection chances of these specific individuals? The aim of this contribution is to comparatively study a number of these questions for the population of local councillors in Europe. It evokes questions on the similarity or divergence of social biases in political recruitment in different local political systems. Do the same social background characteristics distinguish "the many" from "the few" in all countries under study? Do certain patterns in the "skewing" of social background emerge and to what extent can they be linked to different institutional histories in local government? As such this study is one of the first to structurally scrutinise local councillors in such a systematic variety of political systems. Adapted from the source document.
Burgemeester (m/v) in de Lage Landen Karsten, Niels; De Ceuninck, Koenraad; Reynaert, Herwig
Res publica (Bruxelles),
7/2017, Letnik:
59, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Like national politicians, local representatives are claimed to become increasingly professionalised. The alleged professionalisation of the local councillor underpins a fundamental debate on the ...state of local politics. Does professionalisation entail an asymmetry in the councillor population that is necessary to govern localities in the twenty-first century, or is it hard to comply with the very nature of representative local democracy - creating an undemocratic imbalance between professionals and laymen in local government? This article seeks to contribute to the debate by outlining the extent of, and relation between, layman politics and professionalisation in the recruitment and career of Belgian local councillors. After scrutinising these elements separately in a descriptive section, both are linked in a subsequent explanatory analysis, verifying whether professionalised recruitment in a given political system results in professionalised careers. The article uses quantitative survey data gathered from a selection of 856 Belgian local councillors.
The City Monitor is a policy instrument and has been used to measure the state of 13 Flemish cities in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The community indicators of the City Monitor provide feedback on the ...evolution of a multitude of phenomena, and so they represent an opportunity for policy learning about the livability and sustainability of those cities. Indicators simplify the representation of societal problems and in that sense they are helping the communication between city authorities and their stakeholders. In this article we also focus on two innovative characteristics of the co-design methodology of the City Monitor. First of all, indicators were constructed on the basis of a normative vision about urban sustainability. We argue that a sustainability framework can give value added to map vital signs of the quality of life in Flemish cities. Secondly, the City Monitor was being developed with the participation of about 200 experts, coming from city governments and other administrations, civil society and academic world. It is our argument that the participatory approach fosters the use of community indicators and generates interesting side effects. As a third argument, we indicate the importance of the attitude of city authority people for its implementation within the city organisation. The City Monitor is certainly meant as an input for urban policy debate about the quality of life in the major Flemish cities. Does it live up to its expectations? And will the vision and indicators on urban sustainability stir up the debate about urban sustainable development?
Nowadays, cities formulate long-term strategies to address the challenges and opportunities they face. Numerous strategic plans or planning instruments are developed for this purpose. In this ...article, we would like to examine the role, impact and relevance of these types of plans in decision-making processes concerning urban development projects (UDPs) in the Flemish Region of Belgium. To what extent do strategic plans succeed in capturing and steering the complexity of spatial interventions in contemporary urban contexts? We argue that a complexity-acknowledging perspective provides a more realistic and adequate view here by seeing strategic plans as only one among many elements in the set of tangled inter- and intrastrategic processes which together determine UDPs. A comparative and qualitative case study was carried out in the city of Kortrijk. The decision-making of three UDPs was studied thoroughly. Interviewing key actors and analysing policy documents helped us to (re)construct the complex decision-making processes and to stipulate the meaning of all involved formal plans and planning tools.
Team work or territorial war? Steyvers, Kristof; Reynaert, Herwig; Block, Thomas
Public management review,
01/2010, Letnik:
12, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This article studies the extent to which the newly created figure of the management team in local government in Flanders might lead to changes in administrative conduct. It uses a new ...institutionalism perspective in three worlds of action to study the mediating effect of meso-organizational and micro-individual factors on macro-constitutional reform. The empirical analysis (based on an assessment of the reform by the key acting municipal secretaries) highlights the importance of meso-factors for change. Especially the extent to which integrative thinking and independence from politics are present in the administrative logic of appropriateness seems to matter. This is complemented by micro-individual assumptions on the overall improvement of the macro-constitutive framework of reform. Reprinted by permission of Routledge, Taylor and Francis Ltd.
Municipal amalgamations in Belgium took place some time ago and the local council elections of 8 October 2006 marked the thirtieth anniversary of this thorough overhaul of the local administrative ...landscape. The municipal amalgamations of 1976 were undoubtedly the biggest reform the local level in Belgium has ever faced. The Netherlands also underwent municipal amalgamations, but there the amalgamation process followed a different pattern, taking longer, with discussions conducted in a different way. This article examines the principal similarities and differences between these two countries with regard to municipal amalgamations. The first part of the article looks at the different scales of local government in several European countries; in the sections following, the Belgian and Dutch experience with municipal amalgamations is discussed in greater detail. In the last section an attempt is made to answer the question of why the processes in the two countries were so different.
Team Work or Territorial War? Steyvers, Kristof; Reynaert, Herwig; Block, Thomas
Public management review,
20/1/1/, Letnik:
12, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This article studies the extent to which the newly created figure of the management team in local government in Flanders might lead to changes in administrative conduct. It uses a new ...institutionalism perspective in three worlds of action to study the mediating effect of meso-organizational and micro-individual factors on macro-constitutional reform. The empirical analysis (based on an assessment of the reform by the key acting municipal secretaries) highlights the importance of meso-factors for change. Especially the extent to which integrative thinking and independence from politics are present in the administrative logic of appropriateness seems to matter. This is complemented by micro-individual assumptions on the overall improvement of the macro-constitutive framework of reform.
The three main political parties which dominate British politics, at all levels, face a continuing challenge from smaller political parties and independent candidates. Such alternatives to the main ...three parties, however, have been a long-standing feature of the political landscape at both national and local levels. Yet, little is known of the way in which smaller parties and independent politicians contribute to politics and government and the impact they have on the functioning of democracy and institutions' governance. Moreover there is an absence of a conceptual framework within which to assess and understand the world of small party and independent politics. The article, based on research funded by the Leverhulme Trust (grant F/094/AP), sets out such a framework from within which small party and independent politics can be considered and understood.
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