Local Elected Representatives Research Articles

Lacking Incentives, Not Information. Why Politicians tend to be Less Responsive to Lower‐Income Citizens

The principle that democracies give all citizens an equal voice is challenged by scholarly work showing that policies tend to be biased in favor of the more wealthy citizenry. One reason for such unequal representation lies in representatives being less responsive to the preferences of lower compared to higher‐income citizens in their policy actions. Drawing on surveys with local elected representatives in Belgium and Sweden, this study zooms in on two potential drivers of unequal responsiveness. We look at the possibility that politicians have less incentives to be responsive to the less affluent, and less accurate information to do so in the first place. Concretely, we question politicians about the anticipation of accountability from lower‐ versus higher‐income citizens (incentives) and make them estimate the policy positions of lower‐ and higher‐income citizens (information). Moreover, we explore whether descriptive representation factors into these two possible drivers of unequal responsiveness by leveraging variation in politicians’ backgrounds. First, we find that representatives anticipate significantly less electoral accountability from lower‐income than from higher‐income citizens. Moreover, politicians with a lower‐class background hold less unequal accountability beliefs, hinting at the importance of more equal descriptive representation in mitigating inequality in responsiveness. Second, unequal responsiveness does not seem to be a matter of representatives having less accurate information about the opinions of lower‐income citizens; politicians’ estimations of different income groups’ policy preferences are equally inaccurate.

Responding to whom? An experimental study of the dynamics of responsiveness to interest groups and the public

ABSTRACT While politicians are commonly depicted as having strong incentives to be responsive to both interest groups and citizens to govern and maintain office, the literature lacks designs that allow for assessing the causal effect of both types of actors on individual policy-makers. This study addresses this gap by formulating theoretical propositions regarding responsiveness of politicians to both public opinion and interest groups and testing them in a vignette experiment with responses from over 2000 Danish and Dutch local, regional and national elected representatives. Our study finds important differences in the dynamics of responsiveness to the two types of actors: Public opinion has a strong direct effect on the intended voting behaviour of politicians, whereas the effects of interest groups are weaker and mainly demonstrate the potential to influence the views of ideologically aligned legislators. Left-wing politicians, in particular, are responsive to civil society groups. These results have implications for understanding political representation and the role of interest groups across multiple levels of government. While the heightened sensitivity of politicians to some aligned groups creates a risk of policy-making biases, it is reassuring that interest groups have a weaker effect than public opinion and primarily hold potential to influence like-minded politicians.

Public health engagement in alcohol licensing in England and Scotland: the ExILEnS mixed-method, natural experiment evaluation.

International systematic reviews suggest an association between alcohol availability and increased alcohol-related harms. Alcohol availability is regulated through separate locally administered licensing systems in England and Scotland, in which local public health teams have a statutory role. The system in Scotland includes a public health objective for licensing. Public health teams engage to varying degrees in licensing matters but no previous study has sought to objectively characterise and measure their activity, examine their effectiveness, or compare practices between Scotland and England. To critically assess the impact and mechanisms of impact of public health team engagement in alcohol premises licensing on alcohol-related harms in England and Scotland. We recruited 39 diverse public health teams in England (n = 27) and Scotland (n = 12). Public health teams more active in licensing were recruited first and then matched to lower-activity public health teams. Using structured interviews (n = 66), documentation analysis, and expert consultation, we developed and applied the Public Health Engagement In Alcohol Licensing (PHIAL) measure to quantify six-monthly activity levels from 2012 to 2019. Time series of PHIAL scores, and health and crime outcomes for each area, were analysed using multivariable negative binomial mixed-effects models to assess correlations between outcome and exposure, with 18-month average PHIAL score as the primary exposure metric. In-depth interviews (n = 53) and a workshop (n = 10) explored public health team approaches and potential mechanisms of impact of alcohol availability interventions with public health team members and licensing stakeholders (local authority licensing officers, managers and lawyers/clerks, police staff with a licensing remit, local elected representatives). Nineteen public health team activity types were assessed in six categories: (1) staffing; (2) reviewing and (3) responding to licence applications; (4) data usage; (5) influencing licensing stakeholders/policy; and (6) public involvement. Usage and intensity of activities and overall approaches varied within and between areas over time, including between Scotland and England. The latter variation could be explained by legal, structural and philosophical differences, including Scotland's public health objective. This objective was felt to legitimise public health considerations and the use of public health data within licensing. Quantitative analysis showed no clear evidence of association between level of public health team activity and the health or crime outcomes examined, using the primary exposure or other metrics (neither change in, nor cumulative, PHIAL scores). Qualitative data suggested that public health team input was valued by many licensing stakeholders, and that alcohol availability may lead to harms by affecting the accessibility, visibility and norms of alcohol consumption, but that the licensing systems have limited power to act in the interests of public health. This study provides no evidence that public health team engagement in local licensing matters was associated with measurable downstream reductions in crime or health harms, in the short term, or over a 7-year follow-up period. The extensive qualitative data suggest that public health team engagement is valued and appears to be slowly reorienting the licensing system to better address health (and other) harms, especially in Scotland, but this will take time. A rise in home drinking, alcohol deliveries, and the inherent inability of the licensing system to reduce - or in the case of online sales, to contain - availability, may explain the null findings and will continue to limit the potential of these licensing systems to address alcohol-related harms. Further analysis could consider the relative success of different public health team approaches in terms of changing alcohol availability and retailing. A key gap relates to the nature and impact of online availability on alcohol consumption, harms and inequalities, alongside development and study of relevant policy options. A national approach to licensing data and oversight would greatly facilitate future studies and public health input to licensing. Our interview data and therefore PHIAL scores may be limited by recall bias where documentary evidence of public health activity was not available, and by possible variability in grading of such activity, though steps were taken to minimise both. The analyses would have benefited from additional data on licensing policies and environmental changes that might have affected availability or harms in the study areas. The study was registered with the Research Registry (researchregistry6162) on 26 October 2020. The study protocol was published in BMC Medical Research Methodology on 6 November 2018. This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme as award number 15/129/11.

Do local authorities take human rights seriously? Lessons from the French case

ABSTRACT The central government has the primary responsibility for the protection of human rights. However, several factors such as decentralisation raise questions about the role of local authorities in this area. Our paper examines this issue through an interdisciplinary approach, combining international law and political sociology. Our focus lies on the case of France, the ‘homeland’ of human rights: do French local elected authorities always take human rights seriously? Our research design combines qualitative and quantitative methods. After providing a background of the international legal context, this paper will present the findings on human rights local perceptions and practices of elected representatives. Human rights’ perceptions of these subnational political actors strongly depend on their educational qualifications and personal commitments. The same applies to the hierarchy that they draw between fundamental freedoms, social rights, and environmental rights. By contrast, local practices in favour of human rights vary most importantly according to the local authorities’ status and demographic weight, rather than their political hue. When human and financial resources are scarce, the goodwill showcased by local elected representatives is not sufficient to foster the proper implementation of human rights.

Understanding the perception of buffer zone communities to gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) conservation in Chitwan National Park, Nepal

The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a Critically Endangered species found in Nepal and India. In Nepal, gharials are distributed in Chitwan and Bardia National Parks. Gharials are highly threatened due to various and severe anthropogenic activities. In this study, we assess the attitude, perception and willingness of a range of stakeholders living around Chitwan National Park to participate in gharial conservation. We conducted semi-structured questionnaire surveys with open ended questions. We interviewed national park officials (n = 8), local community group members (n = 54), hoteliers (n = 12), conservation partners (n = 5), local elected representatives (n = 38), fishing community members (n = 14), fishing net sellers (n = 15) and students (n = 9). Our study revealed that respondents are familiar with existing conservation awareness activities and expressed their willingness to participate in gharial conservation activities which can be capitalized on for future conservation initiatives for gharials. Further, we suggest to concentrate efforts particularly on local representatives, fishing net sellers and river dependent communities. These efforts include community level gharial knowledge sharing and interaction program, school teaching program, participating community in gharial conservation and its habitat management intervention and livelihood programs.

The Right of Access to Public Information: Human Rights Issues, Transparency and Good Governance

The right of access to information is based on both Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantee everyone the right and freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas” by any means of their choice. Article 24 of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) guarantees the right to information in the following terms: “everyone has the right to information”. The effective manifestation of this right to information remains closely linked to the exercise of freedom of expression and opinion on any subject of public interest and its inevitable corollary, freedom of information. The effectiveness of the right to information also depends on citizens' participation in the nation's public life. A population well-informed by its government can fight against fake news and the spread of false rumors while promoting the fight against corruption and good governance. Accessing public information is one of the most important conditions for assessing the democratic management and openness of society to citizen participation. As an inalienable right, access to information is the foundation of a free, democratic and transparent society. The research was based on the legal approach and the comparative method. The former allowed the subject to be approached by grasping the quintessence of the various existing legal standards. The latter helped to compare the various internal and extra-internal legal instruments based on comparative law, particularly French law. This analysis also used the documentary technique and the free interview in the form of a chat with ordinary citizens or any other personality (civil society groups, journalists, entrepreneurs, national and local elected representatives, other professional, political and trade union groups, and civil servants).

COVID-19 pandemic and local executive-opposition institutional relations: a survey analysis

ABSTRACTLocal governments were on the front line in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also had to rethink their action mode and carry out a swift digital transition. These changes affected the performance of local democracy, in particular, the nature of Local Executive-Opposition Institutional Relations (LEOIR). Using new survey data on the perceptions of local elected representatives, we run an ordered probit regression model to understand the perceived effect of exceptional measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on LEOIR in the Portuguese context. The results show, through the lenses of local key informants, that the Executive’s capacity to explain to its constituents the exceptional measures adopted and its formal duty to communicate these decisions to the Municipal Assembly have aggravated the conflictual nature of LEOIR. This study contributes to local governance research by elucidating how accountability and communication practices can soothe or aggravate Executive-Opposition institutional tensions in extraordinary times.

In recognition of councillors: the (in)adequacy of remuneration (during the COVID pandemic) in New South Wales, Australia

ABSTRACT Fair and equal pay are basic principles determining appropriate remuneration. Yet expectations that locally elected representatives are motivated by community service justify token compensation. This article presents data from a survey of councillors in New South Wales about the adequacy of current remuneration against the expectations and time commitment of the role. It finds: the majority of councillors feel under-compensated for the time they devote to the role; some councillors had unmanageable workloads during the COVID-19 pandemic, and; variations in pay scales across local government areas only partially correspond with differences in volume and complexity of work. Most critically, low pay directly impacts the quality of representation by curtailing the hours councillors can commit to council work. The article argues that ‘recognition’ needs to be a core principle in determining councillor pay. Current levels both under-recognise what local elected representatives do, and the importance of local government for democracy.

Territorial planning and adaptation to global changes. A critical analysis of the French State doctrine on the coast of the Gulf of Lion

The Mediterranean coast condition is worrying. The Gulf of Lion coast lower and sandy areas, densely urbanized, are particularly exposed to erosion. In addition, this coastline will experience by 2100 an increase in salt water intrusions, floods by marine submersion and damage to infrastructure due to sea level rise. The State first “left it to the developers” at the end of the 19th century, then decided to build new seaside resorts within the ‘Mission Racine’ the framework in the second half of the 20th century. The State now defends a “retreat doctrine” by relocating activities and people further away from the sea. However, this doctrine is opposed by economic actors and especially by local elected representatives, who have become the real architects of planning policies as a result of the 80’ decentralisation. The adaptation of this very touristy coast, which was an international laboratory of architectural and urban innovation during the 1960s, therefore seems compromised. Neither the local planning tools nor even the regional coastal management strategy can reconcile economic development and resilient urban planning in the absence of coastal governance.

Citizen policy entrepreneurship in UK local government climate emergency declarations

AbstractPolicy entrepreneurship theory seeks to explain how actors, institutions, actions and interactions influence policy makers and policy outcomes; however, the role of citizens in this process remains largely unarticulated. Adopting a conception of policy entrepreneurship as a (distributed) pattern of agency rather than the actions of an individual, we analyse the development of local government climate emergency declarations (CEDs) (many of which visibly involved citizen advocacy). This analysis expands on the role of citizens in policy change and provides evidence of how citizen entrepreneurs interact collaboratively with more traditional forms of policy elites, in this case local elected representatives. Since 2018 hundreds of local governments in the United Kingdom (UK) have issued CEDs in a surge of expressions of local climate ambition. Whilst CEDs have attracted attention from scholars, the underlying dynamics and politics which drove the adoption of these policies, including the role played by citizens, remain unexplored in the literature. Interviews with councillors, council officers, and citizens reveal that citizens carry out a range of activities related to policy entrepreneurship, including problem framing, identifying solutions, networking and building coalitions, and seeking attention and opportunities. We find that they carry out these activities collectively with other citizens and collaboratively with elected representatives; whilst precise coalition‐internal dynamics vary, citizens frequently exploit opportunities to demonstrate the strength and breadth of public support for their cause.

Do Elections Influence how City Halls Communicate on Social Networks? Romanian Example

Online communication, and especially messages transmitted through social networks, are now an essential tool for local public institutions. The current pandemic increased the reliance of citizens on messages posted online by their representatives and public servants.
 Our interest in this research is to see if, in election times, their messages differ somehow from the usual pattern. This is interesting for us because, in the case of Romania, the local elected representatives are in most cases the best electoral agents of the political parties.
 In Romania mayors are elected, and are some of the most visible political figures, both al local and at national level. We are interested to see how local elections influence the social media activity of the institutions they nominally lead. For this, we have analyzed the official Facebook pages of city halls around Romania, with mayors that took part in elections and mayors who did not, from all relevant political parties.

Privatization of Law Enforcement


 
 The year 2020 ushered in growing calls to defund the police. In Canada, as in other countries where the movement to defund the police has gained momentum, activists demand transferring money from police departments to social workers, reducing the number of police officers, and increasing police departments’ democratic accountability. This last group of reform initiatives is, perhaps, the least controversial one because it calls for improving the familiar structures of democratic oversight over police departments, such as municipal councils, independent police oversight boards and complaints bodies, and others. 
 The demands for greater accountability of police departments to the public are a symptom of a deeper problem - there is a growing discrepancy between the goals of policing and the consequences of the police’s actions. This discrepancy materializes when the police’s attempts to ensure public safety result in the marginalization of racialized communities, particularly in larger cities across Canada. In order to understand why laudable policy goals lead to deeply problematic consequences, it is necessary to analyze the policing process in our cities. While it has traditionally been assumed that this process is left to the discretion of separate police departments, this paper demonstrates that externalities, such as data generated by private technologies, play an important role in undermining the goals of policing. Reliance on private data and technology does not absolve the police of accountability for resulting human rights violations. However, it has important implications for the reform of public oversight over the police. In an era when non-governmental actors are taking part in law enforcement through procurement contracts, democratic control over the exercise of the police’s contracting powers is an important, albeit often overlooked, instrument of police reform. Relying on contracts for predictive policing technologies as a case study, this paper argues that communities should condition the funding of police procurement on ex ante assessment procedures, technical specifications, and contract enforcement rights. Also, local elected representatives should have an opportunity to approve any data and technology sharing arrangements as well as federal standing offer arrangements that extend predictive policing to their communities.
 

Exister dans et par la crise. La gestion de la crise sanitaire comme mode de légitimation du « local »

À partir de l’étude de la presse nationale et de documents produits par les associations d’élus locaux et de fonctionnaires territoriaux, cet article analyse la façon dont les collectivités territoriales se sont données à voir entre mars et août 2020, via des discours et des politiques, et comment leur action et leurs prises de position ont pu être soutenues ou relayées par des éditorialistes, des journalistes, des experts. Ce faisant, l’article montre comment la « crise du coronavirus » a pu nourrir la cause décentralisatrice, par la publicisation de l’action des collectivités territoriales, mais aussi en fournissant de nouveaux arguments aux avocats de la décentralisation.

Promoting Human Rights in the Context of Police Procurement: A Study of Predictive Policing Instruments

Across Canada, human rights activists demand greater democratic accountability of police departments. These demands are a symptom of a serious problem - there is a discrepancy between the goals of policing and the consequences of the police’s actions. This discrepancy materializes when the police’s attempts to ensure public safety result in the marginalization of racialized communities, particularly in larger cities across Canada. To understand why laudable goals lead to deeply problematic consequences, it is necessary to analyze the specifics of modern policing in our cities. This paper relies on the case study of predictive policing instruments to demonstrate that externalities, such as recommendations generated by private technology, play an important role in undermining the goals of policing. Predictive policing instruments analyse different sources of data - police stops data, reported crimes, individual criminal records, and gang databases - to predict potential criminal activity. The use of this technology may violate several provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the guarantees of liberty, due process, and equality. Due to the increasing reliance of police departments on private technology, democratic control over the exercise of the police’s contracting powers becomes an important, albeit often overlooked, instrument of police reform. This paper argues that communities should condition the funding of police procurement on ex ante technology assessment procedures, technical specifications, and contract enforcement rights. Also, local elected representatives should have an opportunity to approve any data and technology sharing arrangements that extend predictive policing to their communities.

Developing accountability mechanisms in NGOs in providing health services

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate NGOs’ accountability in delivering sub-district (upazila) health services in Bangladesh Methodology: The approach of this study is qualitative and 85 respondents, including two focus group participants (each focus group consists of 8 respondents) from rural and urban areas, have been selected for the interview to collect data for understanding accountability mechanisms and NGOs in health care delivery. Findings: The study found that the staff members of NGOs ensure their accountability to their higher officials and the conditions of fund-receiving agencies. Field data demonstrate that NGOs have poor accountability to the government and the local elected representatives because of their poor coordination, lack of policy, and an inadequate legal framework. In addition, NGOs work with limited clients in a particular area, but they have no direct accountability to service users as the policy of the organization does not allow being accountable. The mechanism of supervision is cooperative and supportive which closely guides the staff to contribute to the effective and efficient health care. NGOs have limited capacity and resources for promoting health care although they use their available resources efficiently, with strong monitoring and supervision to provide satisfactory health service delivery. In addition, the positive behavior of NGO health care providers, the minimal amount of time needed in getting services, friendly insurance schemes, freedom from politics and greater fairness all contribute to the effective and efficient health care delivery. Practical Implications: The evidence of this research will promote health care management and ensure good governance in health service delivery as NGOs in supervision mechanism and resource management are highly appreciated and could be a good example for health service managers. Also, this research can be a policy guideline for health care managers for future improvement for many developing countries. Originality/value: This paper demonstrates that managerial efficiency, intensive supervision, need-based motivation, commitment and positive ethos contribute to promoting NGOs’ health service accountability and the quality health care. The ideas on accountability mechanisms promote good governance in the health service organizations and can be a valuable understanding for international health care managers around the world. Abbreviations: BRAC: Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee; CC: community clinics; GK: Gonoshasthaya Kendra; NGOs: Non-governmental Organizations; PNC: Post natal care; TB: tuberculosis; UHC: Upazila health complex; UPHCP: urban primary health care project (UPHCP)

Comprehensive Perception Approach of Adoption: Experimenting Hybrid Chinese Maize Varieties in Benin

The probability of adoption of four Chinese Hybrid Varieties of maize is considered as a favorable perception for these varieties by actors. In order to understand the way of adoption, a panel of actors comprising producers, processors, traders, extension officers, local elected representatives and, above all, end-users, was used as enumerator to evaluate the behavior of those varieties in comparison to the reference maize varieties known as “local” in experiment plots during the vegetative, harvesting and processing phases. For each actor surveyed and for each introduced variety, the comparative index of appreciation (IA) was determined by the difference in perception scores with respect to each of the descriptors evaluated. The adoption of maize varieties within the sites surveyed was affected by the respondent’ social profile (title), the number of varieties already adopted by the respondent, respondent’s experience, age, educational background, membership to an association/organization and the site (research station). The estimation of adoption relative to probabilities (odds ratio) of each variety of maize from the binary logistic regression models revealed only one variety having more than one in two chances for being adopted. Unlike the adoption rate of maize varieties calculated after expensive dissemination efforts, the analysis of probabilities and determinants of adoption somewhat reduces research, pre-extension and extension efforts. The proposed approach allows for a flexible integration of research experiments and field extension concerns of the process of adoption by creating panels of stakeholders around research experiments on research stations.

Climate change response in New Zealand communities: Local scale adaptation and mitigation planning

This paper investigates climate change adaptation and mitigation planning responses of New Zealand communities, using an online survey of local elected representatives. Climate change is affecting New Zealand through changes in precipitation patterns, increases in temperature, changes to the frequency and duration of droughts, sea level rise, and the increased occurrence of extreme events. These impacts highlight the vulnerability of key economic activities, communities, and infrastructure. As environmental and socioeconomic vulnerability varies with place, local level climate change policies are important tools to increase resilience when faced with a changing climate. The research survey, targeted towards local elected representatives, unpacks local scale climate change planning efforts across the country, as well as decision-maker perceptions of barriers and motivations in the area of climate change planning. Findings suggest that increasing local-scale responses hinges on public perception of the urgency of climate change, which is heavily influenced by national priorities. Furthermore, support for national level responses is limited by a collective view of climate change as an issue of an uncertain future, rather than one of present concern. Thus, the inclination to act at the local level is to some extent undermined by slow national action.

Frontières Et Dynamiques Socio-Spatiales En Afrique : Une Analyse À Partir Des Frontières Sud- Camerounaises

This article focuses on the openness and socio-economic dynamics associated with the meeting of different communities from many inland territories of Africa: on the borders of South Cameroon, northern Equatorial Guinea and North of Gabon, attracted by the oil windfall. The study illustrates the effectiveness of "living together" in this vast sub-region. It shows how development is based on the organization of trade that is not simply based on the differences between national systems, but on the establishment of South- South relations. While the challenges based on planning on these cross-border spaces is indispensable, local elected representatives are trying to set-up networking arrangements for cross-border communities. Border management makes it possible to ensure security, counter-threats to people and economic prosperity. The construction of a motorable high-way and the implementation of treaties on the opening of borders signed between the States since the 16th of March 1994 deemed at facilitating the free movement of economic actors, while many still consider the arrival of foreigners in these Eldorado as an invasion.

Sunk cost of local elected representatives in situation of fiscal competition: An example of escalating commitment

IntroductionCompetition between French local communities to build infrastructures to attract enterprises and residents could sometimes result in irrational public spending. ObjectivesShow the influence of psychological factors and the phenomenon of escalating commitment in particular on this type of economic decision. MethodWe conducted a survey comprising four scenarios which were sent to 285 local elected representatives and we study the impact of the factors “Amount of sunk costs” and “Level of project completion” on two dependent variables, “the desire to complete the project” and “the judgment regarding the quality of the investment”. The scenarios presented a project which involve servicing a site and the construction of a road infrastructure in order to attract an enterprise. ResultsIn conformity with the works of Boehne and Paese, whatever the dependent variable, the level of project completion significantly explains the escalation of commitment. The hypothesis of “sunk costs” is confirmed when the escalation of commitment is measured by the dependent variable “desire to complete the project”. ConclusionWe have highlighted the effect of sunk costs and level of project completion on the decisions of local elected representatives, enriching the understanding of economic decision factors.

Cooperative competition? The ambivalence of coopetition in territorial authorities

Cooperative competition – coopetition – is a phenomenon whose influence extends to the sphere of territorial public management. Based on an initial questionnaire conducted among 252 territorial authority managers, an exploratory case study on inter-municipal cooperation in France’s Rhône-Alpes region, and an in-depth follow-up survey among 10 leaders, we analyse why and how cooperation between territorial authorities is advisable, despite the potential political rivalry between local elected representatives and the specific challenges of each territory, provided that they respect the principles of equity in governance and avoid conflicts of interest when managing their teams. Points for practitioners Our research shows the benefits of cooperation between competing territorial authorities, provided that they respect the principles of equitable management. This implies the need to distribute power equally among partners of all sizes, to take decisions collectively by a majority, or even unanimously when it comes to a change of governance, and not to infringe on the prerogatives of each partner, unless added value can be gained from pooling the efforts of territorial authorities.