Local election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rules for, and experience with, local elections vary widely across jurisdictions. In those electoral systems that roughly follow the Westminster model, a terminology has evolved with roles such as Mayor or Warden to describe the executive of a city or town or region, and Reeve, Alderman or Councillor to describe the legislators who deliberate decisions. However, job descriptions vary so widely across jurisdictions that these terms do not effectively describe the various ways in which local election campaigns and means of election vary.
In an emerging democracy, for example, there may be little information on candidates' relationships or conflict of interest, or this may simply not be important compared to getting influential people into government so they can argue out their issues there, instead of in the streets with violence. Local election procedures may involve a great deal of protest and street violence and may not be very predictable. If campaign finance laws exist they are unenforced or unenforceable, and a "strongman" may emerge to simply bully others into line with their civic agenda. If any civic best practice is put into effect it is based on the personality of one person or a very few strong people.
Political careers are usually made at the local level: Boris Yeltsin, for instance, as the top official in Moscow, was able to prove his effectiveness and eventually take the job of President of Russia after the collapse of the USSR. When he fought his first contested local election, he demonstrated a willingness to put his policies to the ballot - a test few Soviet leaders would have passed.
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[edit] Local Elections in Different Countries
[edit] Middle East
In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, local elections have proven to be easier to achieve than larger scale ones that affect the national or federal government. By giving voice to people on the smaller scales of government, over such issues as water supply, power, and sewer systems, confidence is thought to be built to eventually reform higher levels of government.
In more mature developed nations there is always an effort to get more information about candidates and options to people, and to keep the influence of larger national bodies like a political party to a minimum, as its ideological agenda is not typically that of any locality:
[edit] United Kingdom
In the UK the term local elections refers to county, unitary authority, borough, district, city, town and parish elections. These take place on the first Thursday in May. Councillors generally sit for four years. The number of independent (non-party) councillors has declined over the past forty years - nowadays the overwhelming majority of local councillors belong to one of the major parties.
There is a movement towards standardization of local issues forums for e-democracy that would likely lead to much clearer and functional standards for the roles of various players in local elections.
[edit] United States
In the US there is more focus on electoral reform including a call for instant runoff voting to be used to select all major executives. This is thought to make it possible for small parties to compete, as in the case of Matt Gonzalez in San Francisco, CA. Such a ballot reform is often a complement to moving towards a Strong Mayor system, such as in Baltimore, MD or as recently advocated in Oakland, CA.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Electing Local Authorities - article from the ACE Project
- Direct Local Democracy in Switzerland - article from the ACE Project
- "Democracy at the local Level" an overview from International IDEA
