The quality of local democracy: an institutional analysis

ABSTRACT

Much of the literature on quality of democracy is case study-oriented and focused on nation states. Theoretical work and, in particular, comparative empirical research on the quality of local democracy are less advanced. This paper contributes to our understanding of how democracy works from below. It develops a conceptual framing and employs a multidimensional index of the quality of democracy across all 278 municipalities in mainland Portugal by focusing on procedural dimensions of democratic performance at three levels of legitimacy: input, throughput, and output. Regression analysis is then used as a preliminary test of the usefulness of these measures of quality of local democracy and to uncover associations between them and a range of political and socioeconomic factors. The results suggest that municipalities led by independent mayors, with larger populations and higher levels of multiculturalism are likelier to be associated with ‘better’ local democracy.

KEYWORDS:

• Democratic performance
• legitimacy
• local government
• measurement
• quality of democracy

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank project collaborators António F. Tavares, Ana Macedo, Filipe Teles, Luís F. Mota and Sara Moreno Pires as well as all the experts and authorities who supported this work with their input.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There are also other initiatives, like the Quality of Government (https://qog.pol.gu.se), which is not strictly the same as quality of democracy but overlaps in a large number of dimensions (this data is also available at regional rather than local/municipal).

2. https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/28/14/28140582-43d6-4940-948f-a2df84a31893/v-dem_codebook_v10.pdf.

3. https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/studies/pdf/self_rule_index_en.pdf.

4. Some of the indicators included in this index have been previously developed in: da Cruz, N.F., and Marques, R. ‘An application of a multicriteria model to assess the quality of local governance.’ Urban Affairs Review, 55, no. 4 (2019): 1218–1239.

5. The proportionality index is calculated by dividing the proportionality difference by 2 and then subtracting from 100. Source: Rose, R. ‘Electoral systems: a question of degree or of principle?’ In Choosing an Electoral System: Issues and Alternatives, edited by A. Lijphart and B. Grofman 73–81, New York: Praeger, 1984.

6. The Municipal Transparency Index (MTI) is a multidimensional index of 76 indicators (information items) classified in seven dimensions related to the format, composition and functioning of local government authorities, calculated through the analyse of 308 local government websites (which corresponds to the total number of municipal-level authorities in Portugal). The dimensions are as follows: (i) information about the format, composition and functioning of the municipality; ii) reports and policy planning; iii) taxes, tariffs and regulations; iv) relations with civil society; v) public procurement; vi) budget and financial affairs; vii) urban planning/land use. The indicators chosen for each dimension go beyond legal obligations of disclosure and include several dimensions of transparency through which the public can scrutinise daily local government affairs and interact with their decision-makers. A panel of local governance experts was responsible for the selection of indicators and the setting of relative and absolute weights for each indicator and dimension (for details, see da Cruz, N.F., Tavares, A., Marques, R., Jorge, S., and de Sousa, L. ‘Measuring local government transparency.’ Public Management Review, 18, no. 6 (2016): 866–893).

Additional information

Funding

This paper derives from the project ‘Qualidade da Governação Local em Portugal’ [Quality of Local Governance in Portugal] supported by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos (FFMS).

Notes on contributors

Luís de Sousa

Luís de Sousa is a political scientist and research fellow at the University of Lisbon Institute of Social Sciences in Portugal. His research interests are corruption control, local government, regional integration, cross-border cooperation, comparative government, and politics in Europe and he has published on these topics in international peer reviewed publications. He also acts as a consultant to various international governmental and non-governmental organisations on corruption control.

Nuno F. da Cruz

Nuno F. da Cruz is assistant professorial research fellow at LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science. His work on urban and metropolitan governance is multidisciplinary and global in reach, engaging with a range of public policy issues. This research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals. Dr da Cruz is also a course tutor at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Urban Affairs Review.

Daniel Fernandes

Daniel Fernandes is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute at Fiesole, Italy. His research interests are welfare politics, labour-market issues, and parliamentary competition.