Municipal Mayors Research Articles

Identifying Personality Types of Mayors in Local Government in Bulgaria According to the Myers – Briggs Typology

In this article, we make an attempt to explore and identify the personality types of mayors in Bulgarian local government by applying the Myers-Briggs typology indicator. This article presents part of the results of a more extensive author’s survey of mayors in municipalities and districts across the country. The fieldwork was carried out in the period between June 2022 and September 2023, with responses received from 57 of the mayors. The attention will be directed towards one of the questionnaires applied in this author’s study, which included questions regarding leadership models in Bulgarian municipalities. The methods used to analyze the collected data are descriptive statistics and calculation of an arithmetic mean value. The analysis identifies personality types of Bulgarian mayors and the strengths and weaknesses for each type. The results show that the personality type ‘Executive’ is the most common one among mayors in Bulgarian municipalities. The results provide an opportunity to expand the research and include qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups and others, with the aim of examining the specifics of the individual case and linking it to the context of the environment. In addition, in the future, the relationship between personality type, charisma, emotional intelligence and the managerial style of the mayors will be investigated, as a result of which a profile can be built, through which candidates for public positions can be selected. Further research will also look at the relationship between the personality type of the mayor, the financial and economic condition of the municipality and the attracted investments during their mandate term.

Party identity and social-distancing behaviours in Brazil

ABSTRACT Does political affiliation of local politicians determine citizens’ compliance to social distancing behaviours? I provide causal estimates of the effect of political identity of municipal mayors on regional differences in engaging in COVID preventive behaviours in the context of Brazil. I employ a sharp regression discontinuity design based on close mayoral elections in 2016 to examine the effects of having a mayor from one of three political parties that President Jair Bolsonaro is closely associated with, by combining Facebook mobility data that tracks regional movement relative to February 2020 levels with electoral data from the 2016 mayoral municipal elections. The methodology compares municipalities that are similar along a wide array of predetermined and observable correlates of the spread of coronavirus, and where the incumbent mayor was selected as-if randomly. I find that residents of Bolsonaro-affiliated municipalities exhibit 60% smaller relative declines in regional movement and are 13% more likely to cross regional boundaries over the months of March, April, and May in 2020. The findings hold for each of the three political parties, for each of the three months since the onset of the pandemic, and after controlling for anti-lockdown measures of 15 March 2020 in Brazil.

Community Functions of Schools and Municipal Support of Schools on the Continuum of the Rural Periphery – Town

Abstract The article compares the community functions of schools and the support to schools from the municipality representatives and community depending on the location of the school – in peripheral or semi-peripheral rural areas, rural small towns, outer suburbs and also in towns, i.e., at various distances from the town. It is based on controlled interviews with school headmasters and mayors of the respective municipalities and on the collection of information from annual school reports and school inspection reports. A total of 57 schools of two districts in the south-west of Czechia were evaluated. The assumption that complete rural schools in peripheries have the greatest community functions was confirmed; but complete rural schools in semi-peripheries also received similar assessment. However, a fully functioning rural "community school" was not found in the case study area. Schools in towns show weak community functions, because community functions in towns are provided by other institutions and facilities.

Permissive prejudice in localized authoritarian consolidation: evidence from Turkey's municipalities

ABSTRACT What strategies do competitive authoritarian regimes use to target local-level opposition gains? How and why can these strategies vary subnationally? We analyse how national-level identity politics shapes regimes’ repression calculus at the local level. We suggest permissive prejudice leads regimes to choose harsher strategies in localities governed by stigmatized minority groups than in majority-led localities. To study this phenomenon, we identify three strategies varying in degrees of severity and visibility, and present an original dataset of repressive events in Turkey’s municipalities from 2016–2022. We argue anti-Kurdish prejudice explains the ruling AKP’s use of a harsh strategy of leader replacement in 149 cases of Kurdish-led municipalities yet only one Turkish-led municipality. Supporting our claim, the AKP used behind-the-scenes hamstringing to obstruct opposition mayors in Turkish-led municipalities. Our findings highlight the permissive and restrictive roles that identity politics plays in shaping local-level repression and wider patterns of authoritarian consolidation.

The Impact of Charisma and Emotional Intelligence on Management Style in Bulgarian Municipalities

This article aims to explore and present charisma and emotional intelligence as factors influencing the leadership style in municipal administration in the Republic of Bulgaria. Data from a self-conducted online survey among mayors in Bulgarian municipalities, including regional mayors in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, has been used. The research started in June 2022 and ended in September 2023, with responses obtained from 57 mayors. The article focuses on three of the questionnaires used in a broader research project on leadership models in local self-government. The forms distributed to mayors are for self-assessment and to individually investigate the factors of charisma, levels of emotional intelligence, and the implementation of a transformational leadership style. The analysis methods include cluster analysis, calculation of the mean arithmetic value, correlation analysis, and testing of statistical hypotheses. The analysis identifies and presents the mean values of charisma, the mean values of emotional intelligence, the degree of applying a transformational leadership style, that constitute it, for each mayor and the entire population. Additionally, the analysis explores the dependence between the three variables collectively, based on gender, municipality-region, and depending on the size of the municipality or region. The derived results allow the construction of a profile to select candidates for public positions and to investigate their impact on the financial and economic indicators of the respective municipality or region, as well as on the image of the mayor and the municipality or region in the public sphere.

Peculiarities of the Legal Status of the Mayors of Lithuanian Municipalities and the Competencies (Abilities) Necessary for them in the Context of the Change of the Municipal Governance Model in 2023

The purpose of the article is to present some of the results of a research using a questionnaire survey method conducted in February 2023, which aimed to reveal the peculiarities of the legal status and roles (dominant and others) of mayors of Lithuanian municipalities and find out what necessary competences (abilities) municipal mayors must have and in what forms they must be developed, in the presence of two different municipal governance models (the model that was applied until April 2023 and the model that is applied from April 2023). The idea to conduct such research arose just a few months before the new Local Government Law (in its revised version) entered into force in June 2022, which introduced a new municipal governance model and changed the dominant role of the mayor in the municipality. This research also took place a few weeks before the regular municipal council and mayor elections (which took place on March 5, 2023). The particular target group was chosen for this research - the mayors of Lithuanian municipalities who had served in these positions for four or more terms (referred to as "experienced" mayors during the research). No similar research (in terms of purpose and respondents) has been conducted in Lithuania. The results of the research showed that "experienced" mayors have a good understanding of the specifics of the new municipal governance model to be applied from April 2023. They are essentially prepared to take on a new dominant role (the role of municipal executive institution), replacing the previous dominant role (the role of chairman of the municipal council). The results of the research also showed that "experienced" mayors understand well what necessary competencies (abilities) municipal mayors must have, as municipal governance model and the dominant role of the municipal mayor change in it. The results of the research can be useful for improving the legal regulation of the powers of municipal institutions (municipal council and municipal mayor) and the legal framework for their relationships as well as for organizing the the improvement of the competencies of municipal mayors.

CHARISMA AS A FACTOR OF THE FORMATION OF LEADERS IN THE MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION ON THE TERRITORY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

This article aims to study and present charisma as a factor of the formation of the leader, taking as an example the municipal administration in the Republic of Bulgaria. The author has used data from her own online survey of mayors of municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as of district mayors of the cities Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna. The survey started in June 2022; by the time this article was written, responses had been received from 55 mayors. The author’s emphasis will be on one of the survey questionnaires, composed of questions grouped into six blocks. The analysis methods are: descriptive statistics, calculation of mean values, testing of statistical hypotheses, and analysis of open-ended questions. The analysis identified factors of charisma and the respective personal characteristics. The identified personal features and behavior of the surveyed mayors may be used to design a profile to be applied when selecting candidates for public positions.

Institutional Creation as a Local Governance Response to Syrian Refugees: The Case of Turkish Municipalities

External shocks constitute ideal moments for exploring the creation of new institutions as well as changes within existing ones. This paper treats the influx of Syrian refugees into Turkish urban centers as a critical juncture and investigates the changes in the local governance bodies as a result. Based on interviews and focus group discussions with administrative and nongovernmental actors involved in the local response to refugees, we explore the factors that contributed to the emergence of new institutions within municipalities and their institutionalization as bodies able to resist changes of municipal mayors across elections. We investigate how the newly created institutions matter for refugee policy response in looking at various host cities before and after the 2019 local elections. We argue that actual change in the way institutions operate takes place in municipalities (and their respective departments within) that have managed to institutionalize their refugee response through innovative and sustainable policy initiatives that can spill over to areas of policymaking other than refugee response, which invest in building capacity and multilevel partnerships.

Social perception of migrants from “Belarus” from the perspective of voits and mayors from the area of the border strip under the state of emergency (case study)

The crisis on the border between Belarus and three EU countries, i.e. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which has been ongoing since the spring of 2021, was an unprecedented attempt in Europe to destabilize the situation inside the Community. Poland faced a challenge it had not faced before. The challenge was faced not only by state authorities and services dedicated to the protection of the Union’s external border, but above all by the residents of the border areas. The influx of illegal migrants inspired by the Belarusian authorities and, as a result, the introduction of the state of emergency affected their lives to the greatest extent, disrupting its rhythm, while the migrants appearing in the farms introduced a hitherto unknown fear of strangers. In this context, the issue of perception and evaluation of the migration crisis and the actions taken by the government from the point of view of local authorities: mayors and village heads of border areas bordering Belarus seems to be extremely interesting cognitively. An empirical survey carried out on a purposive, exhaustive sample of village heads and mayors of municipalities in the border area was devoted to this problem. It should be noted here that the project had the character of a case study. It was diagnostic (exploratory) in nature at this stage and needs to be deepened in the course of further research. The results obtained allow to positively confirm the formulated research hypotheses. The problem of illegal migrants was perceived by the respondents as an issue requiring decisive and immediate action by state institutions. Cooperation with Mateusz Morawiecki’s government and its field bodies was positively assessed. The mayors mostly approved of the emergency measures treating them as necessary to resolve the crisis.

Better to be direct? Evidence from the abolition of direct elections in Italian local governments

AbstractThis paper provides evidence for the importance of direct electoral processes by investigating the consequences for public spending of an unexpected reform that repealed direct elections for local (provincial) politicians in Italy. Direct elections were substituted with indirect ones, whereby directly elected municipal politicians choose a municipal mayor to serve as provincial president. Using a difference‐in‐differences strategy, I document two main consequences of the reform. First, municipalities connected to the provincial presidents tend to receive disproportionately more public funds after the reform, suggesting geographic favoritism increased. Second, the share of provincial resources spent on public goods drops in favor of bureaucratic costs. I discuss suggestive evidence that these results are driven by weaker electoral incentives rather than by the selection of worse politicians.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cross-border cooperation between Czechia and Austria

Cross-border cooperation plays an important role in deepening European integration. Thanks to the existence of cross-border cooperation, border regions can overcome negative effects of the border and the adverse impact on their development, which leads to improvements in the daily lives of local residents. The Covid-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented closure of borders between most EU countries, which meant that communication between cross-border actors became more difficult and many cross-border activities were cancelled. After the first waves of the pandemic subsided, twenty interviews were conducted with mayors of Austrian municipalities in the Czech-Austrian border region. The topic of these interviews was the level of cross-border cooperation with Czech entities (municipalities, schools, societies etc.) and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cross-border cooperation. The main findings from the interviews are that cross-border cooperation is positively evaluated. More than half of the mayors see cross-border cooperation as slightly increasing in recent years and about a fifth as decreasing or not developing. The main obstacles to cross-border cooperation are bureaucracy and language barriers. There are many joint activities in the border area, some of them have a long tradition and take place every year. Due to the border closure, the organisation of these activities was first postponed and then cancelled in 2020. On a positive note, according to the mayors, most of the cross-border events were already taking place in 2021. It can be concluded, that the pandemic caused a one-year gap in cross-border activities.

Natural Resource Rents, Local Taxes, and Government Performance: Evidence from Colombia

Abstract I compare the impact of local tax revenue and royalties from the extraction of natural resources on governance in Colombian municipalities, leveraging plausibly exogenous variation from cadastral updates and fluctuations in the world price of oil. Higher tax revenue has a larger effect on local public goods in the areas of education, health, and water than a same-sized increase in oil royalties, despite earmarking of royalties for spending in these areas. Higher tax revenue also reduces the probability of a disciplinary prosecution against the municipal mayor, while the opposite is true for royalties, particularly for misbehavior related to public spending.

Yolanda Permanent Housing Projects Turnover Engagements towards Safe and Sustainable Shelter Foresight

Housing ensures that everyone in society has a place to live. This study explored the engagement of the Local Government Units (LGUs) in Capiz in the turnover of Yolanda Permanent Housing Projects (YPHP) toward safe and resilient shelter under the Participatory and Capacity Development framework. A descriptive-qualitative approach leaning on intrinsic case study design was utilized. Data collection was through Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and observations. The participants were three (3) Municipal Mayors, one (1) NHA Region VI Resettlement and Development Officer, and seven (7) Heads of Offices and Housing Coordinators of LGUs in Capiz. The LGUs’ readiness and acceptance of YPHP were linked to participation, capacitation, and engagement. LGUs participation was in the form of attendance at meetings, consultations, and dialogues. Turnover experiences were in planning, implementation, the administrative capacity of NHA, and stakeholders’ representation and participation. LGUs capacitation and engagement were drawn from the establishment and operationalization of the Local Housing Office and Local Inter-Agency Committee. The findings revealed that LGUs participated minimally, were non-agreeable to housing design, not consulted about the project, “Risgos” or risk-takers occupied the units, beneficiaries selling their units, project transition from the past administration, disagreements on beneficiaries’ listings, and limited NHA manpower. There were social and economic service provisions for beneficiaries like access to food, health, transport, fire, police services, and livelihood projects but no sustainability in economic services. A safe and sustainable shelter foresight framework, which the researcher developed, is recommended for further participation, capacitation, and engagement of the stakeholders in the housing projects.

How do municipal mayors and councillors communicate with other levels of government? Evidence from a multi‐level survey of Canadian elected officials

AbstractWhile past research suggests that informal processes of dialogue play an important role in municipal intergovernmental relations in Canada, we currently know very little about their character and frequency. Who do local elected officials communicate with, and through which channels? And which municipal voices carry the most weight in these conversations? This article answers these questions from the perspective of elected politicians themselves, using a pan‐Canadian survey of municipal, provincial, and federal elected representatives. Our findings confirm that municipal intergovernmental relations depend heavily on informal institutions and personal relationships and highlight the key role of municipal mayors as spokespersons and advocates for municipalities in Canadian federalism.

Institutional thickness of a shrinkage region with discontinuous development in a border periphery in Czechia

The article examines the effects of the social networks of a range of actors on the local development of municipalities located in Czech peripheral border regions. Its main goals are to shed light on and understand the role of social interactions in the development activities of individual municipalities in border-region peripheries and reveal the spatial differentiation of these municipalities. The borderland Cheb district (western Bohemia) is affected by the shrinkage process, and the concept of institutional thickness is used as the explanatory framework. One of the key conclusions is that the more disadvantages there are, the more important institutional thickness is as a development factor. The research data are drawn from 24 semi-structured interviews with the mayors of municipalities that within the system of state administration are municipalities without extended powers. The research also confirmed the diversity of individuals holding the position of mayor and the differences in the specific role mayors play in local development, as well as how important it is for municipalities to be active in microregional associations. It also showed that the internal differentiation of development opportunities and the formation of formal and informal ties are also determined by the quality of horizontal and vertical cooperation.

Criminal Responsibility of Municipal Mayors: Aspects of Formal Social Control in the Brazil

Criminal Responsibility of Municipal Mayors: Aspects of Formal Social Control in the Brazil

Clientelism, Turnout and Incumbents’ Performance in Chilean Local Government Elections

Parties and their leaders are linked programmatically and non-programmatically with citizens, incentivising the latter to vote in elections and seeking to influence their choices. In this paper, we analyse the effects of politician–voter linkages on the electoral performance of incumbent mayors in Chile and on electoral turnout in their municipalities. To measure the linkages, we use personal meetings that mayors hold with citizens. While some mayors use this mechanism to solve problems of general interest (programmatic meetings), others do so to provide bureaucratic advantages or benefits for their constituents (non-programmatic meetings). We use a database of 44,162 personal meetings aggregated from Chile’s 345 municipalities. We argue that increases in the number of meetings positively impact electoral turnout and increase the chances of success for incumbent mayors when they compete for re-election. This effect is particularly significant in the case of electoral performance and the re-election of mayors in municipalities with high levels of rurality. Finally, we report that the meetings not only help mayors to link with their constituents but also help them to publicise their political work.

Municipal investment expenditures by pork-barrel mayors: evidence from a transition economy

Abstract The focus of this study is electoral accounting practices employed by mayors in municipalities in a selected, exemplary region in a post-socialist country – the Lodz region in Central Poland. The goal is to identify characteristics of pork-barrel mayors responsible for municipal investment expenditures: their terms of office, partisan affiliation, and gender. The generalised method of moments was applied to estimate the impact that the electoral accounting practices of mayors had on municipal investment expenditures. All 177 municipalities in the Lodz region were investigated, from 2003 until 2019. Contrary to expectations, it was found that electoral accounting was practised by next-term and independent mayors rather than first-term or party-affiliated ones.

Women and local public finance

Does the gender of the mayor affect the size and composition of public expenditures and revenues? Using a sharp regression discontinuity design in close mixed gender races for the election of mayors in Italian municipalities in the period 2000–2015, we find no significant differences in policies implemented by male and female mayors. We explore whether the result masks heterogeneity by gender composition of the local government and by electoral rules according to which a mayor is elected. We find some evidence that female mayors devote a larger share of spending to the environment when there are more women in the municipal council, whereas they reduce the amount of resources going to social spending under the run-off relative to the single round system.

Interfederative Health Consortium in the State of Bahia, Brazil: implementation, management mechanism, and sustainability of the organizational arrangement in the Brazilian Unified National Health System

Analysis of the implementation, management, operation and sustainability of the Interfederative Health Consortia and the Regional Specialty Polyclinics, in the State of Bahia, Brazil. This is a single case study of a qualitative nature, with interviews with managers, social control, regulation, legislative, and mayors of municipalities in the member. The results indicate that capital expenditures and permanent cofinancing by the state manager are factors that encourage the participation of vertical consortia. The support of small municipalities, social participation bodies, and municipal councils stood out. We observed the strengthening of the cooperative relationship among public administrators from formal decision-making spaces and by the need for daily management of specialized care (SC). The offer of SC via consortia mitigated the dependence on buying SC from private services. The fear of losing autonomy, centralizing care in state equipment, and ignoring municipal financing were challenges in the process of restructuring regional specialty services. The support and sustainability of the initiative was based on the evaluation of a situation in which the accessibility to SC was more favorable after implementation of the Polyclinic and of user satisfaction with the quality of services. Strategies to communicate with the population and to bring together instances of social control need to be undertaken. We consider that the case represents a format, within public management, for the provision of more viable and timelier SC, gaining in dimension and quality, especially in territories with a significant number of small municipalities.