In many countries local government is perceived to be shifting towards local governance. This article tries to link three dimensions of governance using data from the Belgian context. While New ...Public Management tries to improve the efficiency of government, more direct & issue-specific forms of citizen involvement aim at democratic renewal. Strengthening the executive puts leaders in a pivotal position in dealing with the former both in evaluative & deliberative terms. Our evidence for Belgian mayors shows a somewhat conservative attitude towards the studied dimensions of governance. Redefining their role in a strategic direction might provoke a perceived loss of power in an environment only hesitantly adapting to governance. The balance between NPM & democratic renewal is less clear-cut in mayoral belief systems. Different factors seem to explain attitudes on both dimensions. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.
The 2006 provincial elections in Belgium were the first organized after the transfer of the bulk of competences on local & provincial government from the federal to the regional level. This means ...that the different regions have both the competence to redesign the institutional framework on provincial government & to change the electoral rules. The government has exercised its competence: some institutional & electoral rules are now different in the two regions. These elections were also the first after drastic reforms in the national political landscape (e.g., the democratic Flemish nationalist party split in different groups, nearly all the parties changed their name & different kinds of cartels & alliances between parties emerged, especially in the Flemish part of the country). All over the country, the Christian democrats & the extreme right parties were the winners of the elections, while the ecologists suffered from a declining trend. For the other parties, results differ according to region. In the Flemish part of the country, the socialists joined the Christian democrats as winners, where in the Walloon provinces they lost votes. The Liberals however noticed declining vote shares in the Flemish provinces, while winning in the Walloon part of the country. Because of the electoral design the evolution of the provincial political landscape offers an interesting electoral barometer of the upcoming federal elections. Provincial elections do not only 'predict' the political future of other levels however, they are path dependent in their own right as well. Historical, institutional, political & electoral forces all codetermine the actual outlook of current provincial events. The analysis for 2006 has once again confirmed this. Tables. Adapted from the source document.
