Matt Evans, "Electoral
Reform and Political Pluralism in Local Government,"
Party Politics, 16 (May 2010), 394-413.
[Available at ]
First paragraph:
There has been growing support for increased local
government empowerment in recent years in countries
throughout the world. In many cases this has been
accompanied by national political parties loosening the
central government's grip on local policymaking. The trend
toward strengthening local government has been termed by
different researchers: 'decentralization' (Hiskey and
Seligson, 2003), 'devolution' (McAteer and Bennett, 2005),
'New Public Management' (Wollmann, 2004a), and 'New
Localism' (Pratchett, 2004; Stoker, 2004). This trend is
more pronounced in Europe, where local government has mostly
been used as a vehicle for service delivery, than in the
United States, where the federalist system has long
supported localism (Wolman, 1996).
Figures and
Tables:
Table 1. Tel Aviv city council election results -
2003
Table 2. Jerusalem city council election results -
2003
Table 3. Haifa city council election results - 2003
Last Paragraph:
Bowler and Farrell have suggested that existing research is
'relatively ill informed' as to the effect of electoral
systems on governance after the elections (2006: 457). While
different studies have produced conflicting conclusions
about which electoral system provides for 'fairer,' more
stable, and more 'representative' governance, none of these
studies apply to local government. Farrell (2001) asserts
that electoral systems must ultimately emerge from the
circumstances of a particular nation. Yet the expectations
for local government are very different from those of
national government. The nature of local government may
allow for representation that mirrors the interests of
society's many sectors without threatening vital security
and services, as would be the case with national government.
Electoral reform for local government must look beyond the
governing abilities of strong mayors and take into
consideration whether such shifts in the nature of
representation by elected leaders are desirable.
