County Council Elections Research Articles

Some head starts are bigger than others: dynastic legacies and variation in candidate quality in Taiwan's local elections

Abstract Candidates from established political families are more likely to win than their non-dynastic counterparts because their political inheritance often includes significant advantages in resources and reputation. Yet dynastic candidates also bring their own set of experiences and qualities to the game. Is it the case that their individual characteristics can explain their electoral success, or is their success due to their family legacy? Theoretically, how and when are political resources transferred to the new generation? We examine these questions by looking at non-incumbent candidates in city and county council elections in Taiwan from 2009 to 2014, drawing on unique data on politicians' backgrounds. The profile of dynastic candidates differs from that of non-dynastic candidates: they are younger, have less electoral experience and list experience in different sorts of organizations and jobs. However, these differences are not what drives their electoral success; indeed, they tend to win despite these qualities rather than because of them. Even after controlling for candidate quality, dynastic status remains a powerful predictor, conveying roughly a 20 percentage point increase in the probability of winning. This suggests that while dynastic candidates accrue some of their advantage long before they run for office, a large part of the inheritance is transferred during the campaign.

'The Lights of the Electric Octopus Have Been Switched Off': Visual and Political Culture in Edwardian London.

This article reconstructs the visual culture of politics in Edwardian London through a study of the 1907 London County Council election. It moves beyond the memorable account given in Graham Wallas's Human Nature in Politics to examine the actors, especially associations and newspapers, that participated in the election. Drawing upon newspapers, election addresses, cartoon, leaflets, and posters, the article argues that Edwardian London was a prime site in the application of new media for political communication. It shows, however, that new modes of communication could co-exist with, and intensify, established forms of public politics. It reveals a highly knowing visual culture of politics through which issues of authenticity and identity were contested, and recasts understanding of a controversial and critical election.

It Runs in the Family

What motivates citizens to run for office? Recent work has shown that early life parental socialization is strongly associated with a desire to run for office. However, parents not only shape their children’s political environment, they also pass along their genes to those same children. A growing area of research has shown that individual differences in a wide range of political behaviors and attitudes are linked to genetic differences. As a result, genetic factors may confound the observed political similarities among parents and their children. This study analyzes Swedish register data containing information on all nominated and elected candidates in the ten parliamentary, county council, and municipal elections from 1982 to 2014 for a large sample of adoptees and their adoptive and biological parents. By studying the similarity in political ambition within both adoptive and biological families, our research design allows us to disentangle so-called “pre-birth” factors, such as genes and pre-natal environment, and “post-birth” factors like parental socialization. We find that the likelihood of standing as a political candidate is twice as high if one’s parent has been a candidate. We also find that the effects of pre-birth and post-birth factors are approximately equal in size. In addition, we test a number of potential pre- and post-birth transmission mechanisms. First, disconfirming our expectations, the pre-birth effects do not seem to be mediated by cognitive ability or leadership skills. Second, consistent with a role modeling mechanism, we find evidence of a strong transmission in candidacy status between rearing mothers and their daughters.

Candidate geolocation and voter choice in the 2013 English County Council elections

The degree of ‘localness’ of candidates, including their residential location, has long been theorised to influence voters at election time. Individual-level tests of distance effects in the 2010 British general elections demonstrated that, controlling for standard explanations of vote, the distance from a voter’s home to that of the candidate was negatively associated with the likelihood of voting for that candidate. To test this theory in a sub-national electoral context more likely to produce distance effects than a national election, this paper builds upon previous analysis by using the 2013 English County Council elections. It improves upon the previous analysis in a number of ways, analysing an election where ‘localness’ effects would be expected to be stronger; combining a bespoke YouGov survey of voters with more precise locational data; including United Kingdom Independent Party candidates in its specification; and considering more closely how voters construe distance. It finds that distance does matter, not only as a linear measure but also in terms of candidates living in the same or different electoral division to voters. Finally, the paper simulates the effect of distance on candidate performances in this type of election to measure its real-world strength.

Føreren fra Lendum

Lars Schreiber Pedersen: The Führer from Lendum
 In writer Erik Aalbæk Jensen’s well-known homeland novel from Vendsyssel Perleporten (The Pearl Gate) from 1964, the figure “Kratholmmanden” (the Kratholm man), is a local farm owner and Nazi leader, who with mixed success tries to win his local area’s residents over to the cause of National Socialism. Erik Aalbæk Jensen’s “Kratholmmand” character was based on Christian Mikkelstrup. During 1934–44, Mikkelstrup was a member of the National Socialist Workers’ Party of Denmark (DNSAP) and from 1935–44 he functioned as the party leader in Horns Herred in north east Vendsyssel. Despite his passionate engagement for the cause during his 10 years in the service of the party, Mikkelstrup was only able to convince a few local residents about the joy of National Socialism. DNSAP never gained any importance in north east Vendsyssel. The local party division in Lendum, which held its meetings in Mikkelstrup’s home, numbered 20–25 members at its height. Mikkelstrup was not solely to blame for the lack of support for the party in his local area. Both he and his fellow believers fought a battle that was impossible to win. The majority of local residents, like the rest of Denmark, at no point wanted to know about DNSAP – which the county council elections in 1935 and the national elections in 1935, 1939 and 1943 clearly showed – and even a leader with a bigger profile than Mikkelstrup, who was neither much of a writer or a speaker, would hardly be likely to attract more members to the party from the region. Together with a number of dissatisfied DNSAP members, he left the party in 1944 and joined the newly-formed Nazi party “Dansk National Samling”, in which however, he did not make much of an impact. With the Liberation of Denmark in May 1945, he was arrested by the resistance movement and was subsequently found guilty of passing on information to the German Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst), which had been based in Aalborg during the occupation. He received a sentence of 18 months imprisonment. He stayed faithful to his National Socialist beliefs after the war but after his release from the prison camp at Kragskovhede in August 1946, he devoted his work to running his farm at Lendum in Vendsyssel. Christian Mikkelstrup died in 1971.

Retrospective: The 1993 County Council Elections

Retrospective: The 1993 County Council Elections

Politics and Feminism in “Outcast London”: George Lansbury and Jane Cobden's Campaign for the First London County Council

This article examines Jane Cobden's campaign for the London County Council (L.C.C.) in 1888–89 and its controversial aftermath. Cobden's effort, a pioneering political venture of British feminism, illuminates late-Victorian concepts of gender. It provides at once an anticipation of, and a distinct contrast to, the militant suffragism of the Edwardian era. In addition, it suggests new ways of thinking about the connection between women's-suffragist and labor politics. Perhaps because the campaign was a comparatively obscure incident when measured against the broad sweep of British political history, however, no scholar has done much more than sketch its bare outline. Hopefully, the fuller depiction provided below will accord it the treatment it really deserves.This article approaches the subject from a tangent, however. Cobden's campaign was a significant if little-known episode not only in the history of British suffragism but also in the life of a man who went on to play a major role in British politics long after the first county council elections had been forgotten. This was George Lansbury, Cobden's political agent during 1888–89 and secretary of the Bow and Bromley Radical and Liberal Federation. Lansbury eventually became one of the main architects of the socialist movement in East London and a chief male supporter of the militant suffragettes during the Edwardian era (in 1912 he temporarily lost his seat in the House of Commons and went to prison on their behalf). He also became a founder and editor of the quintessential “rebel” newspaper, theDaily Herald(which was designated Labour's official organ after Lansbury left it in 1922), a pacifist opponent of World War I, and, from 1931 to 1935, leader of the Labour party itself.

Turnout in English local elections—An aggregate analysis with electoral and contextual data

Analysis of survey data by Miller has identified a number of factors influencing voter participation in local government elections in Britain. Nevertheless, variations in turnout remain so great that further investigation is required. This article uses aggregate data derived from the results of county council elections since 1981 and those for the metropolitan districts since 1982. Additional data, of a social, economic and structural nature, are also used to explore variations in electoral turnout. Using multiple regression analysis produces only a modest success in predicting turnout for the more rural county authorities. In the urban metropolitan districts, however, a much higher level of turnout could be predicted from the model.

The Effects of Candidate Gender on Voting for Local Office in England

There has been considerable controversy over the reasons why women hold less than 20 per cent of all local council offices in England. Using a simple model of the votes a candidate might be expected to receive, this Note uses data from the 1985 English non-metropolitan county council elections to shed light on the paucity of women in local elected office. Our analysis evaluates the following alternative explanations for the low proportions of women in local office:1. Relatively few women are selected by parties to run for local office;2. Parties tend to nominate their women candidates for unwinnable races;3. Voters disproportionately vote against women candidates.

Local elections ‐ A review article

Local Electoral Behaviour, William L. Miller (from Research Volume III, the Committee of Inquiry into the Conduct of Local Authority Business). The 1985 County Council Election Results in England, Colin Railings and Michael Thrasher (Plymouth Polytechnic).

Voting Rights for Alien Residents — Who Wants It?

Foreign nationals permanently domiciled in Sweden have been entitled since 1975 to vote and to be elected to municipal and county council elections. The question now is whether Sweden should go one step further by enabling foreign nationals to vote and stand for election in Riksdag (Parliamentary) elections as well. This article examines some of the major issues associated with international migration and disenfranchisement of migrants created by a contradiction between economic and political rationale. It presents the actual trends in the exercise of the voting rights by the franchised immigrants since 1976. It examines the attitude of the host population toward this unusual reform, entailing sharing of political power with aliens and the position of the immigrants and the natives toward an even more radical proposal to extend political rights to include even the national parliamentary election.

A quiet revolution county council elections: 2 May 1985

A quiet revolution county council elections: 2 May 1985

Book Notes

Book Reveiwed in this article Administrative Theories and Politics Peter Self. Guide to Library Research in Public Administration Anthony E. Simpson. Business and Government: Towards a More Profitable Partnership Institute of Management Consultants. Battle for the Counties: Guide to the County Council Elections 1977 David M. Clark. Introduction to Social Administration Muriel Brown. The British System of Taxation Central Office of Information. Trade Unions Central Office of Information. More than Management Development: Action Learning at GEC David Casey and David Pearce. Financial Management Handbook G. M. Dickinson and J. E. Lewis. Informatics and Administration International Institute of Administrative Sciences The Data Processing Security Game Robert S. Becker. The English Legal System K. J., Eddey. Legal Decisions and Information Systems Jon Bing and Trygve Harold. Cases and Materials on Planning Law Michael Purdue. International Regulatory Regimes Vol. 1. David M. Leive. Perceptions of Federalism by Canadian and Australian Public Servants: A Comparative Analysis Richard H. Leach. The Panchayat Administration in West Bengal Asok K. Mukhopadhyay. Night Work J. Carpentier and P. Cazamian. Collective Bargaining Clive Jenkins and Barrie Sherman. Local Authority Accounting in Ireland T. P. Golden.

Republic of Ireland county council elections

Republic of Ireland county council elections

A Metropolis Votes: The London County Council Election of 1961. By L. J. Sharpe. (London: The London School of Economics and Political Science, Greater London Papers No. 8, 1962. Pp. vi, 96. 6s.)

A Metropolis Votes: The London County Council Election of 1961. By L. J. Sharpe. (London: The London School of Economics and Political Science, Greater London Papers No. 8, 1962. Pp. vi, 96. 6s.)

London county council elections, 1961

London county council elections, 1961

Les affiches electorales. Paris gayly chooses a council

AbstractProfessor Brooks, who reported the London County Council election in the June Review, here reveals the French temperament at elections.

The London county council election of last March

AbstractThe politics of a lecal election in England and how it is taking on the color of national party alignments.