GOLD Report I - UCLG

EUROPE156United Cities and Local GovernmentsIn Eastern Europelocal electionsprovokedramatically lowerparticipation thannational elections,perhaps reflecting ageneral feeling thatlocal authoritiesdon’t have much ofa role to playis a move toward preventing officials fromassuming several executive roles. In EasternEurope, the former classification oflocal executive officers as civil servantshas acquired a particular relevance in thenew institutional context. In Germany, afull-time mayor is classified as a publicsectoremployee for the duration of hismandate; in most of the other countries,such status is only partial.On the other hand, the situation for ordinarycouncilors –the members of the deliberatingassemblies– is generally speakingless satisfactory. The system of leave ofabsence, paid leave and compensation forloss of income that are thought necessaryfor exercising their mandate often providesinsufficient protection. The training of electedofficers is poorly organized, and thesystem for defining ineligibility and inappropriatepractices, aimed at preventingconflicts of interest and improper use ofcertain positions, falls short of acceptablestandards in many countries.Despite all these reforms, one troublesomefact continues to haunt the modernelectoral process: low voter turnout forlocal elections (Gabriel / Hoffmann-Martinot:1999). Declining voter participationand stagnation in voter numbers reflect aworrying disaffection with politics at large.This new iteration of a kind of votertorpor appears to be more a response tohigh-level politics at national level andperhaps the international levels, ratherthan a widespread unhappiness with localauthorities. An exception may be found inEastern Europe where local elections provokedramatically lower participationthan national elections, perhaps reflectinga general feeling that local authoritiesdon’t have much of a role to play.Only three countries are bucking thetrend: Hungary, Ireland and Switzerland.The United Kingdom is also seeing a risein voter participation, albeit from a verylow benchmark. In Spain the trend invoter participation simply is not clearenough to characterize.IV.2. Citizen participationThese developments have been accompaniedby another notable change, increasedcitizen participation that alters traditionalpolitical dynamics. The most obvious formis the referendum, particularly the citizens’referendums initiated by popular demand.This is being increasingly provided for bythe law, though actual use of referendumsis still rare, except in Switzerland and tosome extent in Germany where they are atraditional institution.This should be contrasted with the increasingimportance given to infra-municipalentities, which allow a representation and aparticipation of citizens at the closest possiblelevel to where they live. These entitiesare essentially to be found in countries withlarge municipalities. They are traditional inBulgaria, and in Portugal their role appearsto be growing, which in turn is giving rise tocriticism from council management viewpoint.They can be found in countries thathave undergone territorial reforms, butwithout a role in local administration; in suchinstances they are intended more to maintaina representation to legitimize the amalgamations,such as parishes in England,communities in Wales and villages in Poland,Greece and Lithuania. These can be comparedto the neighborhood institutions inSpain. In the Nordic countries, managementtasks are devolved upon infra-municipal institutionswith corresponding forms of sectorbasedcitizen participation. In other countries,neighborhood councils have been set up,representing local residents; in France theyare mandatory for cities with a population ofmore than 80,000, and are optional for smallermunicipalities. In Italy, neighborhoodcouncils had some popularity in the 1970s,but have since declined.In fact, it has often been thanks to sector-basedprocedures that progress hasbeen made in citizen participation, particularlyin the fields of urban planning,environmental protection and quality-oflifeprotection. Here local government