David Karlsson

Who do the local councillors of Europe represent

The core of politics is to manage conflicts of interests between groups and individuals in society. For some conflicts, traditional political ideologies provide guidelines on how interests should be treated and prioritized. Labour and business interests are intertwined with the left-right dimension, women’s rights are defined and defended by feminists, and conservative nationalists have very different views from liberal pluralists on rights of different ethnic and religious groups.

Local Autonomy or National Equality? A Conflict of Values and Interests for Political Leaders

Abstract Local autonomy and national equality are conflicting political values. Finding the balance between autonomy and equality is a difficult challenge for local leaders in multi-level government systems everywhere. This article aims to find factors that explain the attitudes of local representatives in these matters. The results show that left–right ideology, party interest and local economic interest all have substantial effects on the representatives’ attitudes. Representatives on the right are generally more positive to local autonomy and more critical to equalisation compared to representatives on the left, but the ideological stance of right-wing representatives depends on the economic strength of their municipality. Left-wing representatives are less affected by local economic interests. Representatives of all colours are more positive to increasing local autonomy when they are part of a local ruling majority. The study builds on data from a survey of all local representatives in Sweden.

Causes of party conflicts in local politics

This article shows how two forms of party conflict (political dissent and antagonistic behaviour) are related but explained by different factors. It is therefore of utmost importance to distinguish between the two forms of conflict. Political dissent is mainly explained by the size of demos while social fragmentation, fiscal stress and party contestation increase antagonistic behaviour. The presence of a local protest party inflates both forms of conflict. Surprisingly, party contestation has less impact on conflict levels than earlier studies have suggested. The study builds on data from a unique survey conducted among all councillors in the 290 municipalities in Sweden.

Mayors in the Town Hall: Patterns of Relations and Conflict Among Municipal Actors

The chapter explores the way in which local actors interrelate with each other and the environment surrounding them. For doing so, it analyses the balance of power among municipal actors in European town halls and to what extent these relationships are characterised either by consensus or by conflict. The findings confirm the existence of differences among types of government, confirming the validity of the Mourtizen–Svara’s typology to capture the division of functions at the apex of local leadership forms of local government. When analysing the level of conflict, other factors such as the level of local autonomy in the political system, the municipality’s economic situation or the mayor’s ideological position explain variation.

Putting Party First: Swedish MPs and their Constituencies

This paper investigates the relationship between Swedish MPs and their constituencies between elections. The main finding is that while most Swedish MPs primarily focus on representing their party and promoting issues of national importance, they are also engaged in constituency service and promoting the interest of their constituency in the Riksdag. The findings also confirm expectations that the incentive structures for re-election tend to make MPs focus their constituency interactions on local party organisations rather than on constituents. Constituency service in the form of individualised casework activities is very rare. MPs who have a marginal, less safe seat (i.e., MPs in smaller constituencies and junior MPs) engage more in constituency work and give less priority to interaction with their local party than MPs with safer seats. The study is based on interviews and on data from surveys conducted among Swedish MPs between 1985 and 2014 (the RDU surveys).