Local Government Elections

Traditional local election methods--district, at-large, and hybrid approaches--are changing. There is a movement toward election reform. The purpose of Local Government Elections is to sort through and make sense of the various, sometimes complex, election system options at the local level. The book provides an introduction to local election practices and a review of traditional election methods. Also addressed are the issues, potential solutions, future trends and implications regarding local government elections. In addition, two appendices detail the National Civic League's suggested election guidelines for both city and county governments. While most published works on election practices focus on the federal and state levels of government, Local Government Elections is one of the few that deals solely with the city and county units of government. Complete details are given for such practices as the ward system, at-large plurality system, combined system, limited voting, cumulative voting, proportional representation, and alternative voting, and their myriad variations.

Local government is the hidden leviathan of American politics: it accounts for nearly a tenth of gross domestic product, it collects nearly as much in taxes as the federal government, and its decisions have an enormous impact on Americans' daily lives. Yet political scientists have few explanations for how people vote in local elections, particularly in the smaller cities, towns, and suburbs where most Americans live. Drawing on a wide variety of data sources and case studies, this book offers the first comprehensive analysis of electoral politics in America's municipalities. Arguing that current explanations of voting behavior are ill suited for most local contests, Eric Oliver puts forward a new theory that highlights the crucial differences between local, state, and national democracies. Being small in size, limited in power, and largely unbiased in distributing their resources, local governments are "managerial democracies" with a distinct style of electoral politics. Instead of hinging on the partisanship, ideology, and group appeals that define national and state elections, local elections are based on the custodial performance of civic-oriented leaders and on their personal connections to voters with similarly deep community ties. Explaining not only the dynamics of local elections, Oliver's findings also upend many long-held assumptions about community power and local governance, including the importance of voter turnout and the possibilities for grassroots political change.

Municipal elections in Canada don’t look much like those held at the federal and provincial levels. A key difference is a significant discrepancy in voter turnout, but relatively little is known about why far fewer people vote in city elections. Voters show less interest in local government, seeing it as less influential than other levels, yet they believe their views matter more to local politicians. Political Engagement in Canadian City Elections explores this apparent contradiction by asking who participates in politics, how they go about it, and why. Drawing from the Canadian Municipal Election Study, a novel survey of electors in eight large cities across the country in 2017 and 2018, contributors consider factors ranging from the universal – such as the demographic profile of voters or how economic conditions affect them – to the specific – for example, participation in school board and council elections. There are more municipal elections than any other kind in Canada. The discoveries in Political Engagement in Canadian City Elections collectively represent a major leap forward in our understanding of voter activity at the community and municipal level.

The Routledge Handbook of Local Elections and Voting in Europe represents the standard reference text and practical resource for everybody who analyzes issues such as local electoral systems, voting behavior, or political representation in Europe. It provides comprehensive and expert coverage of 40 European countries – organized along the respective local state traditions – and in addressing a wide range of important questions related to local elections and voting, it broadens the scope of existing analyses quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Finally, it affords a more theoretically grounded typology of local elections and voting. Each country chapter is written by a leading expert and follows a rigorous conceptual framework for cross-national comparisons, providing an overview of the local government system, details on the place of local elections within the multilevel political system, specific features of the electoral system, analysis of the main electoral outcomes in recent decades, and, finally, reflective discussion. Representative democracy is as widespread at the local as at the national level, and as the significance of local authorities in Europe has increased in recent decades, local elections represent a crucial area of study. The Routledge Handbook of Local Elections and Voting in Europe is an authoritative and essential reference text for scholars and students interested in local electoral politics and, more broadly, European studies, public administration, and political science.