Foundation Or Fragment of Local Democracy? Analyzing the Role and Position of Local Councillors in Belgium
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Foundation or Fragment of Local Democracy? Analyzing the Role and Position of Local Councillors in Belgium Examination Commission Prof. dr. T. Valcke, Ghent University (Chairman) Prof. dr. H. Reynaert, Ghent University (Supervisor) Prof. dr. K. Steyvers, Ghent University (Co-supervisor) Prof. dr. F. De Rynck, University College Ghent (Co-supervisor) Prof. dr. J. Ackaert, Hasselt University Dr. K. De Ceuninck, Ghent University (Secretary) Foundation or Fragment of Local Democracy? Analyzing the Role and Position of Local Councillors in Belgium Tom Verhelst Supervisor: Prof. dr. Herwig Reynaert Co-supervisor: Prof. dr. Kristof Steyvers Co-supervisor: Prof. dr. Filip De Rynck Dissertation to obtain the degree of doctor in Political Sciences Ghent University 2013 Foundation or Fragment of Local Democracy? Analyzing the Role and Position of Local Councillors in Belgium Doctoral dissertation, Ghent University, Belgium, 2013 Cover picture: Stefan Dewickere Cover design: Dick Vandecasteele © 2013 Tom Verhelst CONTENTS CONTENTS 5 LIST OF BOXES 11 LIST OF FIGURES 13 LIST OF TABLES 15 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 19 CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 23 1.1. BEYOND THE BALLOT, AWAY FROM THE LIMELIGHT: ANALYZING THE ROLE AND POSITION OF LOCAL COUNCILLORS IN BELGIUM 23 1.2. RESEARCH PROBLEM 28 1.2.1. New institutionalism as general organizing perspective 28 1.2.2. Councillors’ formal role and position in the local system 29 1.2.3. A role and position under strain 41 1.2.4. Institutional attempts to reinvigorate local councils and local councillors 57 1.3. RESEARCH STRATEGY AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 61 CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY 65 2.1. INTRODUCTION: THE RESEARCH PROCESS 65 2.2. RESEARCH SETTING: THE MAELG PROJECT 67 2.3. RESEARCH DESIGN 68 6 | CONTENTS 2.3.1. Operational plan 68 2.3.2. Research procedure 75 2.4. MEASUREMENT 78 2.5. DATA COLLECTION 78 2.5.1. Mail survey 79 2.5.2. Sampling procedure 80 2.5.3. Survey procedure 84 2.5.4. Response 88 2.5.5. Representativeness 90 2.6. DATA ANALYSIS 93 2.7. LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 94 CHAPTER 3. NECESSARY ASYMMETRY OR UNDEMOCRATIC IMBALANCE? PROFESSIONALIZATION IN THE RECRUITMENT AND CAREER OF BELGIAN LOCAL COUNCILLORS 99 3.1. PROFESSIONALIZED REPRESENTATIVES: CONDITIO SINE QUA NON OR CONTRADICTIO IN TERMINIS? 100 3.2. RESEARCH QUESTION, METHODS AND DATA 102 3.3. THE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE OF POLITICAL RECRUITMENT AND CAREER: LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN BELGIUM 104 3.3.1. The legal system 105 3.3.2. The electoral system 106 3.3.3. The structure of party competition 106 3.3.4. The political culture 107 3.4. POLITICAL RECRUITMENT OF LOCAL COUNCILLORS IN BELGIUM 108 3.5. POLITICAL CAREER OF LOCAL COUNCILLORS IN BELGIUM 113 3.6. PROFESSIONALIZED PASSAGES TO POWER? AN EXPLANATORY ANALYSIS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN POLITICAL RECRUITMENT AND POLITICAL CAREER IN BELGIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT 115 3.6.1. Time in office 119 3.6.2. Incumbency 119 3.6.3. Cumul des mandats 120 CONTENTS | 7 3.6.4. Future ambitions 121 3.6.5. Summary 121 3.7. CONCLUSION: REBALANCING LAYMEN AND PROFESSIONALS? 123 CHAPTER 4. FOUNDATION OR FRAGMENT OF LOCAL DEMOCRACY? EMPIRICALLY ASSESSING THE ROLES OF LOCAL COUNCILLORS IN BELGIAN GOVERNANCE 125 4.1. INTRODUCTION: FROM FOUNDATION TO FRAGMENT... AND BACK? 126 4.2. RESEARCH GOALS, METHODS AND DATA 128 4.3. THE CLASSIC COUNCILLOR ROLE-SET 129 4.4. BETWEEN PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE: ROLE-DISCREPANCY OF LOCAL COUNCILLORS IN BELGIUM 130 4.5. DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT AS THE RESULT OF A CHANGING LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM? 132 4.5.1. Place 133 4.5.2. Personal characteristics 134 4.5.3. Informal decision-making culture 135 4.6. THE INFORMAL DECISION-MAKING CULTURE MATTERS! 137 4.7. CONCLUSION 143 CHAPTER 5. POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE A SURVEY ANALYSIS OF COUNCILLOR ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR IN BELGIUM 147 5.1. INTRODUCTION 148 5.2. RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA 150 5.3. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK: A MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO POLITICAL REPRESENTATION 151 5.4. OPERATIONALIZATION 155 5.5. CONTEXTUAL SETTING AND DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH HYPOTHESES: POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN BELGIAN LOCAL GOVERNANCE 157 5.6. DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS: REPRESENTATIVE ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR OF BELGIAN LOCAL COUNCILLORS 159 8 | CONTENTS 5.7. EXPLANATORY ANALYSIS: DETERMINANTS OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN BELGIAN LOCAL GOVERNANCE 163 5.7.1. Political profile 163 5.7.2. Contact profile 165 5.7.3. Personal profile 166 5.7.4. Institutional context 168 5.7.5. Explanatory analysis 169 5.8. CONCLUSION 176 CHAPTER 6. REGIONAL DIVERGENCE, CONVERGENCE OR PATH-DEPENDENCY? ANALYZING THE ROLE AND POSITION OF LOCAL COUNCILLORS IN FLANDERS AND WALLONIA IN COMPARISON WITH THE NETHERLANDS AND FRANCE 179 6.1. INTRODUCTION 180 6.2. COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORK: SAME PLAYERS ON A DIFFERENT STAGE 183 6.2.1. Organizing perspective 183 6.2.2. France 184 6.2.3. The Netherlands 187 6.2.4. Belgium 189 6.3. DATA AND METHODS 193 6.4. THE PROCESS OF POLITICAL RECRUITMENT TO THE COUNCIL 196 6.5. ROLE ORIENTATION 200 6.6. THE CLASSIC POWER TRIANGLE: COUNCILLORS’ SELF-PLACEMENT IN THE LOCAL AUTHORITY 203 6.7. COUNCILLORS, CITIZENS AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 206 6.8. COUNCILLORS’ FUTURE POLITICAL AMBITIONS AND TURNOVER MOTIVES 210 6.9. CONCLUSION 212 CHAPTER 7. GENERAL CONCLUSION 217 7.1. RESEARCH GOAL, STRATEGY AND OUTLINE 217 7.2. THEMATIC AND TRANSVERSAL CONCLUSIONS 219 CONTENTS | 9 7.2.1. Professionalization in political recruitment and career: necessary asymmetry or undemocratic imbalance? 219 7.2.2. Role orientation: foundation or fragment of local democracy? 221 7.2.3. Political representation: people’s delegate or system entrepreneur? 223 7.2.4. Comparative frame: regional divergence, convergence or path-dependency? 225 7.2.5. Summary and transversal patterns 227 7.3. DISCUSSION: REFLECTIONS ON SOME FUTURE PERSPECTIVES 238 7.3.1. The incremental path: institutional renovation 238 7.3.2. The ‘municipal big bang’: institutional revolution 244 7.3.3. Alternative scenarios: rethinking the role and position of local councillors in the twenty-first century 249 7.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 256 REFERENCES 259 APPENDICES 285 APPENDIX A. ORIGINAL QUESTIONNAIRE 285 APPENDIX B. THE 180 MUNICIPALITIES OF THE RESEARCH SAMPLE 305 APPENDIX C. POLITICAL RECRUITMENT AND POLITICAL CAREER 306 APPENDIX D. ROLE ORIENTATION 308 APPENDIX E. POLITICAL REPRESENTATION 314 APPENDIX F. COUNCILLORS’ ROLE AND POSITION IN A COMPARATIVE FRAME 318 LIST OF BOXES Box 1.1. Media coverage of the local council and its actors 25 Box 1.2. The Kokpit: the role and position of Belgian local councillors epitomized 40 Box 1.3. Monism versus dualism 46 Box 1.4. The (widening) gap between citizens and politics? 50 Box 1.5. Local government versus local governance 54 Box 1.6. The council meeting: unveiling councillors’ role and position in practice? 56 Box 2.1. The socio-economic profile of Belgian municipalities: Dexia typology 83 Box 2.2. Interpretation of the strength of relationship coefficients 91 Box 4.1. Role attitude and behaviour: overview of the research hypotheses 142 Box 5.1. Representative attitude and behaviour: overview of the research hypotheses 175 LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTERS Figure 1.1. Easton’s conceptual framework of the political system 32 Figure 1.2. The traditional model of representative democracy 37 Figure 1.3. Councillors’ dilemma dance between representation and governing 42 Figure 2.1. The main stages of the research process 66 Figure 2.2. Operational plan: FRQ, research themes and applied research questions 74 Figure 2.3. The survey procedure 87 Figure 2.4. Representativeness of response in terms of size and region 92 Figure 3.1. Conceptual framework of political recruitment and career 103 Figure 5.1. Andeweg/Thomassen typology on political representation 154 Figure 7.1. The political system in Belgium 235 APPENDICES Figure 3.2. Time spent on the activities of the local councillor office in Belgium 306 Figure 4.1. Role attitude and role behaviour of local councillors in Belgium 308 Figure 4.2. Role discrepancy of local councillors in Belgium 309 Figure 5.2. Representative focus of local councillors in Belgium 314 14 | LIST OF FIGURES Figure 5.3. Discrepancy in the representative style of local councillors in Belgium 317 Figure 6.1. Social base of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 318 Figure 6.2. Political motivations of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 319 Figure 6.3. Apprenticeships of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 319 Figure 6.4. The election of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 320 Figure 6.5. Role attitude of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 321 Figure 6.6. Role behaviour of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 321 Figure 6.7. Councillors’ position in the local power triangle in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 322 Figure 6.8. The representative contacts of local councillors with citizens in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 323 Figure 6.9. The attitude towards citizen participation of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 323 Figure 6.10. The future political ambitions of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and France 324 Figure 6.11. Turnover motives of local councillors in the Netherlands, Flanders Wallonia and France 325 LIST OF TABLES CHAPTERS Table 2.1. Response rates of the MAELG project 89 Table 3.1. Political recruitment of Belgian local councillors 110 Table 3.2. Political career of Belgian local councillors 114 Table 3.3. The impact of political recruitment on political career in Belgian local government. A multiple logistic regression analysis 118 Table 4.1. Role attitude, behaviour and discrepancy of Belgian local councillors 131 Table 4.2. Role attitude, behaviour and discrepancy of Belgian local councillors: results of a binary logistic regression analysis 138 Table 4.3.