The Role of and Limitations on District Councillors
Jens Olav Dahlgaard, Ulf Hjelmar, Asmus Olsen and Lene Holm Pedersen, October 2009
English Summary
The present study is concerned with the role of district councillors and the limitations within which they work. It is based on an internet questionnaire circulated to all district councillors in Denmark, a total of 2,522 persons. The response rate was 53 per cent, i.e. 1,336 district councillors took part. The study was carried out in February-March 2009. The quantitative survey was supplemented with qualitative opinions obtained from members of three selected town councils. In these cases, the researchers conducting the study went over its central themes and findings and the councillors were then invited to give their opinion as to why the findings of the survey were as they were. This qualitative input was used to give expression to subtle points and illustrate the data.
The study has been used in the writing of scientific articles in which data relations of par-ticular theoretical interest are analysed. A number of popular articles, published in Danske Kommuner and AKF Nyt, have also been based on the project. This report sets out the body of empirical findings of the study and the data documentation.
Firstly, the report looks at what sort of people become district councillors, how they use their time, and what causes them to withdraw from local politics. Secondly, it looks at the day-to-day work on the council and relations with the administrative departments. Thirdly, it focuses on what gives councillors influence. The effect that the reorganisation of local gov-ernment has had in these areas is a recurrent theme throughout the report.
The overall purpose of the report is to shed light on what factors are important in under-standing the role and possibilities of local councillors. What is it that defines the limits within which the councillors perform their work as elected representatives, and how do they realise the function of elected representatives? How have these limits changed in consequence of the local government reorganisation, and which councillors now have the greatest influence on the decisions that are taken?
The study found that district councils are not representative of the electorate in the sense that the proportion of men, middle-aged persons, public-sector employees and graduates is higher among council members than among the electorate as a whole. The study also found that private-sector employees more commonly withdraw from council work than do council members in general. Accordingly, the costs associated with being a councillor are experienced as a greater burden by private-sector employees than by public-sector employees generally. To combine the political role with a career and family life is felt to be very difficult. A further finding was that the skewing of the representation increases among councillors as they rise to higher positions in local politics. Thus, there are proportionately more graduates and public-sector employees among committee chairpersons, and more graduates and far more men among mayors, than there are among ordinary council members.
The difficulty with the skewed demographic composition of district councils is that some groups in the population may find it so difficult to take part in local politics that they are in reality more or less excluded from participation. This could lead to a narrower population base from which to recruit local politicians, which in turn could lead to a shortage of potential councillors.
The study found that being a councillor is very time-consuming, that it has become more so, and that this is not a transition phenomenon. A typical district councillor uses 15–19 hours a week on council affairs – approximately half the hours of a full-time job. When a comparison is made with earlier studies, it is apparent that councillors’ time consumption has increased. According to earlier studies, more than 50 per cent of councillors used between 12 and 15 hours a week in 1995, and the corresponding time consumption found by a study performed between 1970 and 1974 was 10 to 12 hours. The amount of time used by 50 per cent or more of councillors is thus higher in 2009 than in all previous studies.
The question then arises of why the time consumption has risen. Today – a good two years after the local government reorganisation – the immediate work pressure due to the amalgamation of districts has passed, and there are no differences in amount of time used be-tween districts that were involved in mergers and the others. This points to the change being permanent and brought about by changes connected with the reorganisation. In consequence of the reorganisation, local authorities were given new areas of responsibility and had growing case volumes and more residents per councillor. The study indicates that these are among the causes of the increase in the amount of time used by councillors.
An additional point found by the study was that holding an institutional post such as committee chairperson or leader of a party group is a particularly relevant factor with regard to the amount of time used. For example, a committee chairperson uses on average 21 hours a week, whereas an ordinary council member uses only 15 hours a week. The study also found that size of district in terms of population is of relevance to time consumption. Looking at those districts with 80,000 or more residents, it is clear that committee chairpersons use a great deal of time – more than 80 per cent of them use at least 20 hours – and more than 40 per cent of ordinary councillors have the same high time consumption.
It follows naturally from these findings to consider whether time consumption on the level seen here can at all be reconciled with a layperson model based on the concept that par-ticipation in local politics is a spare-time occupation. Flexible conditions of employment and an absence of career pressure are required for councillors to be able to satisfactorily combine their local government duties with their work and family life, if they have to use 20 hours of their spare time each week on council business. At first sight there are two types of solutions to this problem in a system of layperson democracy. One approach would be to seek to limit the amount of time used to a level that was realistic within the layperson model by focusing on a “Work smarter, not harder” approach. The other possibility would be to look at the need for higher payment and more full-time politicians, so that local councillors would have better financial and working conditions.
What is it that makes district councillors withdraw from local politics? The question is interesting both in itself and because finding the answer to it gives an insight into what it is that makes being part of the district council attractive for the councillors themselves. The turnover of councillors in Denmark is apparently markedly lower than in neighbouring countries. Seen in that light, the level of withdrawals is not alarmingly high. Nor is it alarmingly low, and there is nothing to indicate that it is a lot more difficult to become a district councillor in Denmark than in other countries. On the contrary, there is sometimes a shortage of candidates.
There are a number of factors that influence a district councillor’s decision to withdraw from local politics. The study shows that the most important motivation for councillors is the desire for influence on policy. Those who obtain influence are far less inclined to leave local politics than those who do not have influence. It can also be seen from the study that political ambition is a particularly strong motivating force. Those who are prepared to be nominated as parliamentary candidates are less likely to withdraw. A tendency was also found for councillors to continue until they achieved their political ambitions, after which the likelihood was greater that they would withdraw. However, it must be said that the opportunities for advancement in district council politics are more limited than is the case with Parliament. In Parliament, the probability that a member will resign decreases the longer he or she has been an MP, whereas the converse is true in the district councils. There is thus something to indicate that the ambitions of district councillors are fulfilled sooner than those of MPs, and that this has an influence on the decision to withdraw from politics. The work environment also has an influence, in that those who feel that unjustified personal attacks occur are more likely to withdraw.
On the basis of the study, a number of conclusions can be drawn about how consensus and conflict in the district council influences the council’s work. In many district councils there is thus a tradition for operating in a more consensus-oriented way – often constituting broadly and arriving at broad political compromises – than is seen in politics at the national level. In the district councils there can therefore frequently be observed a lively collaboration across the party divisions and wings that exist at the national level.
In this connection, the study shows that the extent to which district councillors experience the work of the council as being characterised by consensus varies, and this is reflected in the decisions taken at council meetings. It emerges from the study that the consensus approach is generally weaker in those councils where no party predominates. Generally the indications are that coordination between the party groups is central to the strength of the consensus concept. It is also apparent from the study that the consensus concept is generally more strongly felt by those who are closest to the mayor, i.e. those who are part of the coalition backing the mayor. This is interpreted as meaning that the consensus approach is a flexible phenomenon and it depends on the individual elected representative’s ideological and institutional position in the council – the consensus need not include everybody.
Part of the role of district councillors is to be leaders of local democracy. The study indicates that there are a number of challenges in this connection. Thus, there are a number of institutional factors that affect the constraints within which councillors work and their op-portunities of obtaining influence. One of the findings of the study is that the degree of con-sensus in the district council is of considerable significance for the degree of influence ex-perienced by the councillors; when there is consensus more councillors feel they have influence. At the same time, it found that the greater the number of different parties represented on the council, the more the ability to take cross-party decisions is believed to be limited.
District councillors also play a part in taking responsibility for the implementation of a comprehensive rule set. On this point the study generally found that there is a relatively small proportion of councillors who experience a great problem in relation to the administrative departments. Those councillors who have the greatest influence feel that it is easier to cooperate with and get their business carried out by the administrative departments. In line with this, it is also those councillors who are most in contact with the departments, e.g. through being chairperson of a committee, who experience relations with them as least problematic. In many ways that is a healthy sign. It would be an unhealthy sign if the councillors who were most frequently in contact with the departments felt that the contact was problematic. On the other hand, it is also very important that the councillors who do not hold institutional posts feel that they receive the information they need from the departments. Otherwise it would be a sign of concentration of power, which could be undesirable from the point of view of ensuring a healthy opposition.
Another important role of the councillors relates to the general management of the district’s service institutions. The study found that the councillors’ work in this area is thorough. They are kept up-to-date with documentation on the fulfilment of financial policy goals, while receiving documentation on the achievement of quality and results less frequently. They see this as good. The study indicates that councillors do not generally feel a pressing need for more documentation in order to be able to exercise efficient target-oriented management.
Finally, it was found that the councillors from merged districts predominantly had less influence on both the agenda and the actual decisions taken at council meetings. The findings also indicate that councillors from districts that form a relatively small part of new merged districts generally have less influence than councillors from districts that form a relatively large part of merged districts. It also seems that the extent of the structural changes had particular importance in relation to influence on agenda setting, which might be an indication that some councillors find it more difficult to adjust to the more target-oriented (and less single-issue-oriented) role in the new districts. The rest of the study shows that holding institutional posts, political experience and time invested in council business are important factors with regard to obtaining influence. It is thus worthwhile to use time on one’s position as a councillor if one wishes to have influence in local politics. However, the study also indicates that the amount of time consumed has increased substantially in recent years, and that it can be difficult to find the time necessary to be a councillor.
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