Representation and Community in Western Democracies

Representation and Community in Western Democracies

Also by Nirmala Rao LOCAL GOVERNMENT SINCE 1945 (with Ken Young) THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT TOWARDS WELFARE PLURALISM

Representation and Community in Western Democracies Edited by Nirmala Rao Senior Lecturer in Politics Goldsmiths College University of London

First published in Great Britain 2000 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-41727-8 ISBN 978-0-230-28806-5 DOI 10.1057/9780230288065 First published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Representation and community in Western democracies / edited by Nirmala Rao. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Representative government and representation Europe. 2. Representative government and representation United States. 3. Local government Europe. 4. Local government United States. I. Rao, Nirmala, 1959 JF1051.R463 2000 321.8'094 dc21 99 052071 Editorial matter and selection Nirmala Rao 2000 Chapters 1 and 4 Nirmala Rao 2000 Chapters 2, 3, 5 10 Macmillan Press Ltd 2000 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00

Contents Notes on the Contributors vii 1. The Changing Context of Representation 1 Nirmala Rao 2. Representing Communities: Who and What? 10 Mike Goldsmith 3. Representativeness and Local Politics in Denmark 24 Ulrik Kjaer 4. Representation under Strain: the British Experience 51 Nirmala Rao 5. Representation and Deliberative Politics 68 Jacob Aars and Audun Offerdal 6. Communities, Parties and Crises of Representation 93 Colin Copus 7. Community Politics: Ideals, Myths and Realities 114 John Meadowcroft 8. Representation and Governance: Redefining Roles for Large Council-Manager Cities in the United States 138 James H. Svara 9. Representational Roles and Institutionalism: the Case of the French Regions 167 Olivier Nay 10. Opportunities, Constraints and the Right to Represent 194 Ken Young Index 217 v

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Notes on the Contributors Jacob Aars is a researcher at the Centre for Social Research (SEFOS) at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research interests are in the field of political representation, the recruitment of local elected representatives, and new forms of public participation. He is currently engaged in a project to assess municipal initiatives to strengthen public involvement. Colin Copus is senior lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Wolverhampton Business School, where he is director of the Local Government Research Unit. He has been active in local politics for over 20 years, and has served as a councillor for a total of 16 years on parish, district, London borough and county councils. Mike Goldsmith is Professor of Government and Politics and Pro-Vice- Chancellor at the the University of Salford. He has published extensively in the field of comparative urban politics and government. His most recent work includes the co-edited volume European Integration and Local Government, published in 1997. He has recently completed work on local government chief executives as part of the UDITE comparative project and is currently examining the relationship between municipal size and democracy. Ulrik Kjaer is currently finishing a PhD dissertation on the recruitment of local politicians in Denmark, where he is taking part in the Odensebased research programme on Leadership in Local Government. John Meadowcroft is completing his doctoral thesis on the Liberal Democratic Party at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and works as a research assistant in the Public Policy Research Unit at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. Olivier Nay is senior lecturer at the Institut d Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux at the University of Bordeaux. After studying the political history of French freemasonry and public policies in relation to political communication and the implementation of European structural funds, he published several articles on political and professional vii

viii Notes on the Contributors representation in French local government. His La Région une Institution: La Répresentation, le Pouvoir, et la Régle dans l Espace Regional, was published in 1997. Audun Offerdal is Professor in the Department of Administration and Organisational Theory at the University of Bergen. His interests are in local government issues, elite recruitment and military organisation. He has published widely on local democracy and new forms of governance, and co-edited Local Democracy and the Processes of Transformation in East-central Europe in 1996. Nirmala Rao is senior lecturer in Politics and Head of the Department of Social Policy and Politics at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She formerly held posts at the Policy Studies Institute and the Runnymede Trust. She is the author of numerous publications in the field of local politics, including The Making and Un-making of Local Self Government (1994), and Towards Welfare Pluralism (1996). James H. Svara is Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at North Carolina State University. He spent part of 1998 at Odense University, Denmark, taking part in a 14-country comparative study of local chief executives. Professor Svara is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a member of the National Council of the American Society of Public Administration. Ken Young is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. He served as Director of Research to the Widdicombe Committee in 1985 6, and as Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Committee in 1982 3. From 1990 to 1992 he was a member of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. His most recent book (with Nirmala Rao) is Local Government Since 1945 (1997).