A Panacea for Local Government? The Role of PR David Sinclair Research Fellow October 1998 Constitution Unit publications can be ordered from the following address: The Constitution Unit School of Public Policy 29/30 Tavistock Square London WC 1H 9EZ Tel: 0 17 1 504 4977 Fax: 0 17 1 504 4978 Email:
[email protected] CONTENTS Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Representation of the Citizen 5 Substantive representation 6 The end of one-party states 7 Descriptive representation 8 Responsiveness and Accountability of Local Government 9 Constituency links 9 PR and annual elections 10 Effective Decision Making 12 Turnout in Local Elections 16 Conclusion 18 Appendix A - PR and the Representation of Women 19 Appendix B - The Main Electoral Systems 22 Appendix C - One-Party States 24 Executive Summary With proportional representation (PR) being introduced into Britain at the regional, European and possibly national level, there is increasing interest in the role that PR might play in revitalising local democracy. This Briefing analyses the likely effects of introducing PR for local government elections, and the compatibility of PR with the rest of the government's agenda for modernising local government. The main findings are: Compared to the existing first past the post system, PR wiU increase party competition and opposition representation in local government and will reduce the incidence of one-party states. Most forms of PR reduce the constituency/member link; but the impact of this reduction would be less marked than introducing PR at a national level, because most local government wards already have more than one councillor.