Does local government have a future?Linze Schaap

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Does local government have a future?

Contents

1. General situation2. Challenge-1: contested locality3. Strategies to maintain locality4. Challenge-2: contested local democracy5. Strategies to improve local democracy6. Challenge-3: Europeanisation vs. local autonomy7. Strategies to maintain local autonomy8. And how about us?9. Does local government have a future?

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Does local government have a future?

1. General situation

1. Europe: the realm of differences• State traditions• Structures• Appreciation of local government• Functions and importance of local government

2. Nevertheless: common challenges

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Does local government have a future?

2. Challenge-1: contested locality

1. Government is based on territorial boundaries2. Governance era, however:

networks and functional relationships problem-oriented Issues transgress territorial boundaries

3. Democracy is also based on territorial boundaries4. Modern citizens: acting where, how and when they want5. Representation gap: representing people where they live (sleep),

not where their interests are

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Does local government have a future?

3. Strategies to maintain locality

1. Amalgamations Improved service-delivery Weakened local democracy Representation gap unsolved

2. Inter-governmental co-operations Problem-oriented Fitting the governance era Democratic gap too (unless …)

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Does local government have a future?

4. Challenge-2: contested democracy

1. General dissatisfaction with local politics Lower voter turnouts Less trust

2. Involvement of stakeholders: challenge to councillors Governance = negotiations outside Council

3. Less attachment to locality, loss of identity Global village, multiple identities

4. Increasing social fragmentation Many organisations, overlapping ‘communities’

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Does local government have a future?

5. Strategies to improve local democracy

A. Strengthen the existing model of representation:B. Broaden the concept of representationC. Improving ‘customer democracy’D. Adding direct and participative democracyE. Associative democracy, coproduction with third sectorF. E-democracyG. Democratic leadership

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Does local government have a future?

6. Challenge-3: Europeanisation vs. local autonomy

1. European policies heavily influence local policy-making2. National governments negotiate3. Local/regional authorities mainly lobby in the national capital4. Local autonomy: blind spot in EU eyes5. Despite recognition Charter for Local Self-Governance

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Does local government have a future?

7. Strategies to maintain local autonomy

A. Intergovernmental preparation of EU negotiationsB. International co-operation between local/regional authoritiesC. Rethinking 'local autonomy': local discretion instead?

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Does local government have a future?

8. And how about us?

Where should research be heading?

1. Conceptual and empirical studies into local and regional democracy: ‘multi-level democracy’

2. Conceptual and empirical studies into local/regional public-private co-operations (government and civil society): reinventing self-government / self-government beyond representative democracy (or: party politics?)

3. International comparative studies!

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Does local government have a future?

9. Does local government have a future? -A(Or the world according to Linze Schaap)

1. No, as ‘government’a. is too much based on traditional territoriesb. does not recognise multiple identities in modern societies

2. May be a. if local authorities become partners in governance co-

operationsb. if we get rid of dogma’s

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Does local government have a future?

9. Does local government have a future? –B

3. Hopefully, if we succeed in re-inventing local democracy:a. representative democracy needs maintenanceb. we need ideas derived from additional democracy models

(direct, associative, and participative democracy)c. mutual learning seems to become necessaryd. no fear for direct citizens’ involvement

4. Certainly yes! a. if we know how to empower local self-organising capacities

againb. If we convince the EU of importance local discretion.