Strengthening the local representative system: the importance of electoral and non-electoral representation

Local democracy has increasingly faced problems such as declining voter turnout and decreasing trust in political parties. Certain forms of participatory democracy have been introduced to address political disengagement. Often these efforts do not deliver the envisaged results, as they exacerbate ex...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Local government studies 2019-03, Vol.45 (2), p.196-218
Main Authors: Bovenkamp, Hester M. van de, Vollaard, Hans
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Councillors
decentralisation
Democracy
Disengagement
Election results
Elections
Experts
Identity
Inequality
Local democracy
Political participation
Political parties
Qualitative research
Representation
representative claims
Voter turnout
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Local democracy has increasingly faced problems such as declining voter turnout and decreasing trust in political parties. Certain forms of participatory democracy have been introduced to address political disengagement. Often these efforts do not deliver the envisaged results, as they exacerbate existing inequalities by attracting only certain groups of citizens. This paper takes a close look at representation to find out if and how it can strengthen local democracy. Non-electoral representation, as manifested by representative claims based on non-electoral grounds, such as identity and expertise, made by local councillors, as well as non-elected individuals and organisations, might serve to mitigate democratic problems. We empirically study manifestations of electoral and non-electoral representation and their interactions. We conclude that non-electoral representation can strengthen local democracy, but its relationship with electoral representation can also be problematic. We make suggestions as to how these problems might be overcome in an effort to strengthen the local representative system.
ISSN:0300-3930
1743-9388
DOI:10.1080/03003930.2018.1548351