1 / 12

Does local government have a future?

Does local government have a future?. Linze Schaap. Does local government have a future?. Contents General situation Challenge-1: contested locality Strategies to maintain locality Challenge-2: contested local democracy S trategies to improve local democracy

melora
Download Presentation

Does local government have a future?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Does local government have a future? Linze Schaap

  2. Does local government have a future? Contents • General situation • Challenge-1: contested locality • Strategies to maintain locality • Challenge-2: contested local democracy • Strategies to improve local democracy • Challenge-3: Europeanisation vs. local autonomy • Strategies to maintain local autonomy • And how about us? • Does local government have a future?

  3. Does local government have a future? 1. General situation • Europe: the realm of differences • State traditions • Structures • Appreciation of local government • Functions and importance of local government • Nevertheless: common challenges

  4. Does local government have a future? 2. Challenge-1: contested locality • Government is based on territorial boundaries • Governance era, however: • networks and functional relationships • problem-oriented • Issues transgress territorial boundaries • Democracy is also based on territorial boundaries • Modern citizens: acting where, how and when they want • Representation gap: representing people where they live (sleep), not where their interests are

  5. Does local government have a future? 3. Strategies to maintain locality • Amalgamations • Improved service-delivery • Weakened local democracy • Representation gap unsolved • Inter-governmental co-operations • Problem-oriented • Fitting the governance era • Democratic gap too (unless …)

  6. Does local government have a future? 4. Challenge-2: contested democracy • General dissatisfaction with local politics • Lower voter turnouts • Less trust • Involvement of stakeholders: challenge to councillors • Governance = negotiations outside Council • Less attachment to locality, loss of identity • Global village, multiple identities • Increasing social fragmentation • Many organisations, overlapping ‘communities’

  7. Does local government have a future? 5. Strategies to improve local democracy • Strengthen the existing model of representation: • Broaden the concept of representation • Improving ‘customer democracy’ • Adding direct and participative democracy • Associative democracy, coproduction with third sector • E-democracy • Democratic leadership

  8. Does local government have a future? 6. Challenge-3: Europeanisation vs. local autonomy • European policies heavily influence local policy-making • National governments negotiate • Local/regional authorities mainly lobby in the national capital • Local autonomy: blind spot in EU eyes • Despite recognition Charter for Local Self-Governance

  9. Does local government have a future? 7. Strategies to maintain local autonomy • Intergovernmental preparation of EU negotiations • International co-operation between local/regional authorities • Rethinking 'local autonomy': local discretion instead?

  10. Does local government have a future? 8. And how about us? Where should research be heading? • Conceptual and empirical studies into local and regional democracy: ‘multi-level democracy’ • 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?) • International comparative studies!

  11. Does local government have a future? 9. Does local government have a future? -A (Or the world according to Linze Schaap) • No, as ‘government’ • is too much based on traditional territories • does not recognise multiple identities in modern societies • May be • if local authorities become partners in governance co-operations • if we get rid of dogma’s

  12. Does local government have a future? 9. Does local government have a future? –B • Hopefully, if we succeed in re-inventing local democracy: • representative democracy needs maintenance • we need ideas derived from additional democracy models (direct, associative, and participative democracy) • mutual learning seems to become necessary • no fear for direct citizens’ involvement • Certainly yes! • if we know how to empower local self-organising capacities again • If we convince the EU of importance local discretion.

More Related