Directly Elected Mayors — Democratic Renewal or Constitutional Confusion?

Abstract

The notion that the inhabitants of a local authority should be allowed to select their premier political leader — the mayor — by direct and popular vote, seem to be gaining ground in Europe. Direct election of mayors are now held even in Northern Europe, where such an arrangement traditionally has not been an element in the institutional structure of local government. Germany illustrates this development, where the idea of letting people elect their mayor by direct vote seems to be spreading from the southern Lander (where it has been practised for a considerable amount of time) to the north and east. In the spring of 2000, Londoners went to the polls to elect the new mayor of London, and in the local elections in Norway in the autumn of 1999, 20 local authorities experimented with direct election of the mayor. In 2004, this model will be introduced in Ireland. In the south of Europe, Italy in 1993 decided to move from a system of indirect to direct election of mayors. If we stretch the notion of Europe somewhat, Israel was first, introducing direct elections of mayors in 1975. In short, the idea of having direct election of mayors seems to be a popular one, and spreading.