Citizen Democracy and the Responsiveness of Councillors

The Effects of Democratic Institutionalisation on the Role Orientations and Role Behaviour of Councillors

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6302550
AutoresBas Denters, Sebastianus A H Denter (0000-0002-4707-4352, University of Twente), Pieter-Jan Klok (University of Twente)
Ano2013
Volume39
Fascículo5
Páginas661-680
Data de publicação2013-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLocal Government Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0300-3930 • E-ISSN: 1743-9388
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03003930.2012.670747
OpenAlexW2046180144
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas28

In this article the old question: ‘Do institutions matter?’ is answered for institutions that define democratic systems as more citizen-oriented as opposed to systems where political parties play a more important role. The focus is on the possible influence of these institutions on the orientations of local councillors regarding their representative role and on their subsequent role behaviour. It is hypothesises that the influence of citizen democratic institutions runs through the political culture amongst councillors and affects their individual support for participatory governance. With regard to the role orientations of councillors, it was found that there was only a very weak, indirect effect of institutions on how councillors valued responsiveness. This indirect effect runs through the individual and collective value orientations of councillors. First, institutional variations go hand in hand with variations in the collective and individual support of council members for participatory governance. There is a tendency for councillors in citizen democratic systems of local government to be (both individually and collectively) more supportive of the idea of democracy as a system of participatory governance than their colleagues in party democratic systems. Second, these individual and collective value orientations in turn have a positive effect on the value that councillors put on responsiveness. With regard to behavioural responsiveness, we found that the weak, indirect institutional effect of this on role orientations did not have a behavioural effect. Quite the contrary, it was found that there was a negative effect of citizen democratic institutions on behavioural responsiveness. We found that the stronger the citizen democratic institutions in local government, the less councillors maintained contact with citizens and local groups

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