Abstract
The chapter explores the way in which local actors interrelate with each other and the environment surrounding them. For doing so, it analyses the balance of power among municipal actors in European town halls and to what extent these relationships are characterised either by consensus or by conflict. The findings confirm the existence of differences among types of government, confirming the validity of the Mourtizen–Svara’s typology to capture the division of functions at the apex of local leadership forms of local government. When analysing the level of conflict, other factors such as the level of local autonomy in the political system, the municipality’s economic situation or the mayor’s ideological position explain variation.
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Notes
- 1.
Mayors were asked the following question: ‘Concluding, on the basis of your experience as a mayor in this city, and independently from the formal procedures, please indicate how influential each of the following actors are over the local authority activities?’ Responses could be given on a 1–5 scale, were 5 is ‘high influence’.
- 2.
For a possible explanation of this finding, see the note to Table 2.5 in Chap. 2 of this volume.
- 3.
Methodologically speaking, this index is attempting to measure the overall perception of variations, without losing assets along the way. In effect, the fact of not dismissing the central positions on the axis, but rather assigning them a value equivalent to 0, has allowed us to work with a sufficient number of responses.
- 4.
Methodologically speaking, this index has been calculated in a different way from the previous one, and while the central position of the axis continues to be zero (absence of changes), the direction of the perceived change allows for some distinction to be made, depending on which side of the axis is concerned. Thus, the axis is based on the positive values 1, 2, 3 and their corresponding negative values.
- 5.
The question on influence asks for perceptions about, separately, the executive board, the CEO and different actors of the council. The question on hours spent in different activities includes, on the one hand, ‘meetings with council and executive board’ and on the other hand ‘meetings with administrative staff’.
- 6.
Mayors were asked the following question: ‘We want to find out to what extent relationships inside your municipality are characterised by political conflict. How would you rate the level of conflict, from 0 (totally consensual) to 10 (totally conflictual)?’
In Hungary and Germany, the question was coded 1–10 instead of 0–10. In the mean value calculation presented here, answers from mayors in these countries are coded 1 = 1.1; 1.2 etc.—9 = 9.9 when calculating mean values. In percentage analyses, their answers are recoded as 0–9. There were no 10-answers in Hungary or Germany.
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Navarro, C., Karlsson, D., Magre, J., Reinholde, I. (2018). Mayors in the Town Hall: Patterns of Relations and Conflict Among Municipal Actors. In: Heinelt, H., Magnier, A., Cabria, M., Reynaert, H. (eds) Political Leaders and Changing Local Democracy . Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67410-0_12
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