LOCAL COUNCILLORS UNDER PARTICIPATORY PRESSURE? The impact of different participatory designs on local representatives’ attitudes

The last few decades local councillors are increasingly challenged. On the one hand, by the executive that became more professionalised and dominant. On the other hand, by the implementation of participatory practices. This paper will explore the impact of the participatory forms of democracy on local councillors. Local democracy evolved from a primarily representative to a more hybrid form due to the introduction of participatory arrangements. This creates tension regarding the position and role of local councillors who are believed to be key actors in the classic representative democracy, whilst participatory democracy is on the rise. Citizen participation changes the nature of local democracy and especially the functioning of local elected representatives. Thus, it is crucial to shed light on the attitudes of local councillors towards this new hybrid form of democracy. Existing theoretical reflections and empirical research have already explored this in general. Our contribution deepens this line by considering various types of arrangements and probing into specific dimensions of councillors’ position and role. This paper will investigate the impact of the design of participatory initiatives on local councillors’ attitudes by conducting a large-scale vignette-survey on councillors in Flanders (Belgium). More in particular, we will measure the effect of both the initiator of the participatory arrangement (government or citizen) and the extent to which power is transferred to citizens (consultative, coproductive or decisive) on local councillors’ legitimacy perceptions. In addition, this study investigates whether representational role types (e.g. Trustee, Voter’s Delegate and Party’s Delegate) have a moderating impact on the effect of the participatory design on local councillors’ political attitudes.