Suchergebnisse

Selvom kvinder udgør mindre end 30 procent af kommunal politikere er en stigning i kvindeandelen ikke længere en selvfølge. Hvorfor er situationen sådan? Og skal vi anlægge et pessimistisk eller et mere fortrøstningsfuldt syn på sagen?

Trust in government and in politicians is a very crucial prerequisite for democratic processes. This goes not only for the national level of government but also for the regional and local level. We make use of a large-scale survey among citizens in Denmark to evaluate trust in politicians at different levels of government. And we find that trust in local politicians is a somewhat higher than trust in MPs – especially among citizens who are well satisfied with the municipal service delivery. By introducing several municipal level variables in an MLA analysis, it is also found, that very chaotic government formation processes can negatively influence trust in the mayor and the councilors. Reaching out for the local power by being disloyal to one's own party or by breaking deals already made can sometimes secure the mayoralty but it comes with a prize: lower trust among the electorate.

One-way Danish municipalities try to facilitate co-creation processes is by establishing the type of committees made possible by the municipal statute section 17, subsection 4. These 17-4 committees do not have formal decision-making power but can be established ad hoc, include member from outside the municipal council, and often seek to work across traditional sector boundaries. For a 17-4 committee to have potential to facilitate co-creation, two criteria must be met: 1) focus must be on developing new policies and solutions, and 2) the committee must include external members from outside the council or municipal administration. A survey among all 98 Danish municipalities shows that eight out of ten municipalities have established one or more 17-4 committees. Most include external members, and many of them focus on developing new policies. In total, two out of three of the committees live up to the above-mentioned criteria. From the viewpoint of the municipalities, the committees help make political decisions more responsive to citizens' needs and wishes and infuse the political decision-making processes with new knowledge.

En måde at organisere samskabelse på i kommunerne er udvalg nedsat efter styrelseslovens § 17, stk. 4. Disse 17-4-udvalg kan ikke tage beslutninger, kan nedsættes ad hoc, kan have medlemmer, der ikke er valgt til kommunalbestyrelsen, og søger ofte at arbejde på tværs af traditionelle sektorområder. For at et 17-4-udvalg kan have potentiale som forum for samskabelse, må det kræves, at udvalget har politikudvikling som fokus, og at der udover kommunalpolitikere også er eksterne ikkeoffentlige aktører som medlemmer. En rundspørge til alle landets kommuner viser, at otte ud af ti kommuner har et eller flere 17-4-udvalg. Selvom der oftest sidder en kommunalpolitiker for bordenden som formand, så har de fleste udvalg eksterne medlemmer. Og en stor del af dem arbejder med politikudvikling. Samlet har to ud af tre 17-4-udvalg potentiale som samskabelsesforum. Fra kommunernes synsvinkel bidrager især disse 17-4-udvalg med at gøre det politiske arbejde mere lydhørt overfor borgerne og tilføre et bedre vidensgrundlag for politiske beslutninger.

One-way Danish municipalities try to facilitate co-creation processes is by establishing the type of committees made possible by the municipal statute section 17, subsection 4. These 17-4 committees do not have formal decision-making power but can be established ad hoc, include member from outside the municipal council, and often seek to work across traditional sector boundaries. For a 17-4 committee to have potential to facilitate co-creation, two criteria must be met: 1) focus must be on developing new policies and solutions, and 2) the committee must include external members from outside the council or municipal administration. A survey among all 98 Danish municipalities shows that eight out of ten municipalities have established one or more 17-4 committees. Most include external members, and many of them focus on developing new policies. In total, two out of three of the committees live up to the above-mentioned criteria. From the viewpoint of the municipalities, the committees help make political decisions more responsive to citizens' needs and wishes and infuse the political decision-making processes with new knowledge.

This article "goes local" to investigate the representation of women on city councils, seeking explanations for the variation in women's descriptive representation at the municipal level. Using the State of New Jersey (NJ) as a case, it is asked: what explains why women fare electorally better in some NJ municipalities than in others? More specifically, what explains "blanks"—or councils on which women are absent—in women's representation in local politics? It is demonstrated that council size is a significant predictor of women's presence or absence, but not percentage representation, on city councils.

Should 16-year-olds be entitled to participate in elections? We theorize that mock elections for adolescents, who are not eligible to vote, affect the short-term support among the general public for lowering the voting age. To test our theoretical expectation, we utilize variation among municipalities in the organization of mock elections during the Danish local elections in 2009. Difference-in-difference estimates with data from the subsequent local elections in 2013 demonstrate that citizens in municipalities with mock elections for adolescents were more supportive of lowering the voting age and that their support was strongly rooted in ideological differences.

Should 16-year-olds be entitled to participate in elections? We theorize that mock elections for adolescents, who are not eligible to vote, affect the short-term support among the general public for lowering the voting age. To test our theoretical expectation, we utilize variation among municipalities in the organization of mock elections during the Danish local elections in 2009. Difference-in-difference estimates with data from the subsequent local elections in 2013 demonstrate that citizens in municipalities with mock elections for adolescents were more supportive of lowering the voting age and that their support was strongly rooted in ideological differences.