Are Independent Mayors Different? Non-party Local Leaders and their Views on Local Democracy in Seven European Countries

While it is known that nation-wide parties have dominated local governments in most of the European democracies, the electoral victories of local independent lists and independent mayors (particularly in direct elections) challenge the view that the dominance of parties at the local level is a long-lasting equilibrium. But does the nonpartisanship make a real difference? The occurring opinions that nonpartisans "open up local democracy" or "enhance democratic accountability" are not well-grounded in the systematic empirical analyses . This paper aims to verify whether nonpartisan mayors significantly differ from party members in terms of their political attitudes and views on local democracy. The paper focuses on seven European countries where non-party mayors comprise a considerable group of local political leaders: Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Portugal. The empirical analyses are based on two editions of cross-national survey of local political leaders (POLLEADER) conducted in 2003-2005 and 2014-2016.