Kristof Steyvers

From Princeps to President? Comparing Local Political Leadership Transformation

Abstract Using conceptual dimensions identified by the literature on political leadership, this article compares its transformations at the local level in Europe. Often associated with the alleged shift to governance, the strengthening of the executive comes forward as the underlying tendency in contemporary local leadership. Empowered individualised leadership emerges, in terms of coming to and taking office, challenging traditional notions of tasks, style and conditions of local leadership. Such a tendency does not imply the apparent Americanisation of political leadership however, as the articles in this collection show, rather a path dependent European route has emerged.

Municipal Amalgamations in the Low Countries: Same Problems, Different Solutions

Abstract Municipal amalgamations in Belgium took place some time ago and the local council elections of 8 October 2006 marked the thirtieth anniversary of this thorough overhaul of the local administrative landscape. The municipal amalgamations of 1976 were undoubtedly the biggest reform the local level in Belgium has ever faced. The Netherlands also underwent municipal amalgamations, but there the amalgamation process followed a different pattern, taking longer, with discussions conducted in a different way. This article examines the principal similarities and differences between these two countries with regard to municipal amalgamations. The first part of the article looks at the different scales of local government in several European countries; in the sections following, the Belgian and Dutch experience with municipal amalgamations is discussed in greater detail. In the last section an attempt is made to answer the question of why the processes in the two countries were so different.

When strategic plans fail to lead : a complexity acknowledging perspective on decision-making in urban development projects : the case of Kortrijk (Belgium)

Nowadays, cities formulate long-term strategies to address the challenges and opportunities they face. Numerous strategic plans or planning instruments are developed for this purpose. In this article, we would like to examine the role, impact and relevance of these types of plans in decision-making processes concerning urban development projects (UDPs) in the Flemish Region of Belgium. To what extent do strategic plans succeed in capturing and steering the complexity of spatial interventions in contemporary urban contexts? We argue that a complexity-acknowledging perspective provides a more realistic and adequate view here by seeing strategic plans as only one among many elements in the set of tangled inter- and intrastrategic processes which together determine UDPs. A comparative and qualitative case study was carried out in the city of Kortrijk. The decision-making of three UDPs was studied thoroughly. Interviewing key actors and analysing policy documents helped us to (re)construct the complex decision-making processes and to stipulate the meaning of all involved formal plans and planning tools.

All Politics is Local, Partisan or National? Local Lists in Belgium

“All politics is local.” This saying of former US House of Representatives Speaker Thomas O’Neill Jr. (Heywood 2002: 157), might sound to many political science students as somewhat of an exaggeration. Yet, the local level is often identified with a number of surpluses not so easily found at the other layers of government. Local self-government is seen by many as a necessary liberty to a place bound community, underpinned by considerations of democracy and efficiency. Being close to citizens, the local level is deemed to breed unique opportunities to influence daily-life decisions, and to apprentice other forms of participation (Beetham 1996). At the same time, local knowledge and the multipurpose character of local government, place it in the optimal territorially position, to allocate local services most efficiently (Walsh 1996). Today, this appeal of legitimacy seems to be reinforced, albeit through other means, as the local level often functions as a laboratory for politics and policy to face problems that often surpass the municipal level (Pilet et al. 2005).

Mayors in governance: Heading for efficiency and democracy? The Belgian case

Abstract In many countries local government is perceived to be shifting towards local governance. This article tries to link three dimensions of governance using data from the Belgian context. While New Public Management tries to improve the efficiency of government, more direct and issue-specific forms of citizen involvement aim at democratic renewal. Strengthening the executive puts leaders in a pivotal position in dealing with the former both in evaluative and deliberative terms. Our evidence for Belgian mayors shows a somewhat conservative attitude towards the studied dimensions of governance. Redefining their role in a strategic direction might provoke a perceived loss of power in an environment only hesitantly adapting to governance. The balance between NPM and democratic renewal is less clear-cut in mayoral belief systems. Different factors seem to explain attitudes on both dimensions.

Measuring Local Autonomy

This chapter develops a comprehensive and empirically applicable concept to measure the autonomy of local government in the 39 European countries covered. To this end, we first discuss already existing measurements and typologies of local autonomy and decentralisation. We argue that existing data on fiscal decentralisation only tells part of the story and does not capture the role and discretion of local government in an adequate manner. Subsequently, we present our methodology to measure local autonomy, the coding scheme we developed to code the different countries as well as the different variables used. The chapter contains also information about the organisation of the whole project, the different experts involved and the method applied to gather comparative data.

Political recruitment and career development of local councillors in Europe

Why do some people become and stay politicians while others do not? To gain an insight into this question one has to scrutinise the processes by which certain individuals enter, remain and move in office. In the literature on political science, these processes are usually framed by the concepts of political recruitment and career development. The answer to the initial question is related to notions such as the degree of openness of selection into the core of the political system and to whether or not who governs matters for attitudes and behaviour in office.

Team Work or Territorial War

Abstract This article studies the extent to which the newly created figure of the management team in local government in Flanders might lead to changes in administrative conduct. It uses a new institutionalism perspective in three worlds of action to study the mediating effect of meso-organizational and micro-individual factors on macro-constitutional reform. The empirical analysis (based on an assessment of the reform by the key acting municipal secretaries) highlights the importance of meso-factors for change. Especially the extent to which integrative thinking and independence from politics are present in the administrative logic of appropriateness seems to matter. This is complemented by micro-individual assumptions on the overall improvement of the macro-constitutive framework of reform.

‘From the Few are Chosen the Few...’ On the Social Background of European Mayors

Even a quick look at the comparative literature on the social background and characteristics of local political elites undermines the ‘fata morgana’ of a ‘descriptive’ representation’ in which public bodies are socio-demographic samples of the society they represent (Pitkin 1967). Despite differences over time and between political systems the disproportional recruitment of certain social groups with distinctive characteristics into the (local) political elite is one of the most replicated and perpetuated findings. Furthermore, at the local level political decision-makers are predominantly male, middle aged, high in professional status and well-educated (Eldersveld et al. 1995: 31–55). This leads us to conclude that the political recruitment process, by which ‘from the many are chosen the few’ (Prewitt 1969: 169–188), does not operate in a random manner. Since local leadership selection is conceived as a process by which “individuals are screened by political institutions for elective office” (Jacob 1962: 708) a dynamic interaction of supply and demand side factors becomes apparent in which social background characteristics interfere at different stages. The political capital and motivations of aspirant office-holders intermingle with the demands of gatekeepers in the political system. The ‘structure of opportunities’ of the latter thus biases the nature of the recruitment function (Norris 1997: 209–231).

A knight in white satin armour? New institutionalism and mayoral leadership in the era of governance1

This article connects two streams in the literature on local political leadership by identifying the effect of leadership in form on the altering nature of leadership behaviour in the era of governance as a promising field of research. In particular, it argues to proceed with a comparative new institutionalism agenda. In order to illustrate this approach it uses data from a comparative project on local political leadership in Europe and focuses on mayor business orientation as an aspect of external networking. The analysis shows institutional form matters, but is highly contingent upon leadership context and characteristics. Future research should not only improve the conceptualization of form and extend the scope of leadership behaviour under study, but also probe into the causal mechanisms that relate form, context and characteristics.