Steering, Not Rowing? An Analysis of the Political Influence, the Role Perceptions, and the Behavior of Swiss City Councillors in Different Urban Governance Contexts

Abstract

In today's cities, councillors see themselves increasingly confronted with new forms of political steering focusing more on interaction than on hierarchical decision making and blurring the lines between the public and private spheres. By embedding the concept of governance in a new institutionalist framework, the article investigates the implications of new models of urban governance on the identity, the notion of democracy, the perceptions, and the role behavior of city councillors. It tests two rival hypotheses-an optimistic versus a pessimistic perspective on governance and democracyand thereby draws on multilevel analyses of a comprehensive survey of all city councillors in Switzerland.

From government to governance…to meta-governance: a systematic literature review

“…From a liberal democratic perspective, it is argued that the oversight of governance networks by elected bodies or politicians (i.e. meta-governors) will increase the democratic legitimacy of the respective network because networks often selectively favour the inclusion of private, self-interested stakeholders, and these networks lack electoral accountability (Bristow et al 2008;Fotel and Hanssen 2009;Plüss 2014). By linking representative democracy to these networks, meta-governance can protect the public interest and safeguard accountable, transparent, and representative governance.…”

Institutional- and Individual-Level Influences on Service Representation and Casework in Canadian Cities

“…The extent to which councillors embrace certain roles over others relies to some extent on which roles they see as important-How do they perceive their own jobs as councillors? There exists a well-developed literature on councillors' role perceptions and orientations (e.g., Plüss 2014;Rao 1998;Snape 2004).…”

Zwischenstadtland Schweiz. Zur politischen Steuerung der suburbanen Entwicklung in Schweizer Gemeinden

“…Die zunehmende Inklusion privater Akteurinnen und Akteure in politische Prozesse schwächt die politischen Führungskräfte nicht, obwohl sich deren Verhalten und somit auch die metropolitanen und lokalen Governance-Formen mit der Zeit ändern. So stärken zum Beispiel Exekutivmitglieder ihre Position, indem sie Netzwerke mit weiteren wichtigen Akteurinnen und Akteuren im Metropolraum vermehrt suchen und aufbauen (Plüss 2012b(Plüss , 2014.…”