The decreasing number of candidates at Danish local elections: Local democracy in crisis?

While the qualitative dimension of local political recruitment is the subject of extensive discussion in the literature, little attention has been paid to the quantitative aspect, i.e., how many candidates run for local elections. Using Danish local politics as a case study, this analysis of electio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Local government studies 2007-04, Vol.33 (2), p.195-213
Main Author: Kjaer, Ulrik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Area studies
Candidates
Democracy
Denmark
Elections
Electoral behaviour
European studies
Local elections
Local Politics
Participation
Political Change
Political Institutions
Political science
Political sociology
Politics
Social conditions & trends
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Summary:While the qualitative dimension of local political recruitment is the subject of extensive discussion in the literature, little attention has been paid to the quantitative aspect, i.e., how many candidates run for local elections. Using Danish local politics as a case study, this analysis of election report data demonstrates that the political parties show substantial rational actor behaviour when deciding the number of candidates to be put forward. The number of candidates running at Danish local elections has for the last four decades been continuously decreasing. Applying demand-side hypotheses derived from Rational Choice Institutionalism led to the conclusion that some, but not all, of the decline in the number of candidates can be attributed to changes in the institutional set-up of the Danish local elections.
ISSN:0300-3930
1743-9388
DOI:10.1080/03003930701198599