Search results

There are still a large number of local councils where the majority of the seats are not held by nominees of the political parties. It is important that we should try to understand the operation of the decision-making process in these authorites as well as in those in which the party groups dominate the council chamber. Non-partisan local authorites are generally to be found in the smaller district authorities (smaller in terms of population size, that is) and in the county councils serving predominantly rural areas.
Non-partisan political systems are concentrated in the smaller district authorities and the county councils serving rural areas, partly because, as Jeffrey Stanyer has pointed out, 'in order to vote on other than party lines, an elector must know something of the personal characteristics of the candidates' and he is more likely to have this information in a small community; and also because the difficulties of individual electioneering are greater in larger electoral areas. Of course, as the community grows larger, the local newspaper may attempt to provide relevant information. In large cities this is usually confined to brief and rather dry biographical information about the candidate and his civic activities.

In a recent examination of size of place as a factor affecting electoral behaviour, Bealey and Dyer came to the 'general conclusion' that 'the Labour vote in Britain is proportionately stronger in those constituencies which are part of large places'. Is such a relationship between size of place and Labour strength displayed inlocalelections?

The concept of 'rules of the game' which regulate behaviour in a variety of political situations is one which has only been fully elaborated in recent years. As yet, 'there has been little research systematically investigating the character and consequences of rules of the game', particularly in relation to the operation of local political systems.