The Careers of Councillors: Gender, Party and Politics

Gender, Party and Politics

Catherine Bochel, Hugh M Bochel, Hugh Bochel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138634411
• eBook ISBN: 9781351793858
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This title was first published in 2000: Drawing on a variety of research, including two surveys of councillors undertaken in Scotland, England and Wales, qualitative interviews and the re-analysis of existing data, this book aims to contribute towards research on local government councillors by exploring and developing the idea of "careers" of elected councillors and by examining their ambitions and the types of posts held during their period of office. In particular, the book examines the "career" experiences of men and women councillors, including the differential rates of participation, and progression to senior posts in elected local government. Developments including a growth in the number of "full-time" councillors and the Labour government's proposals for the modernization of local government make the consideration of career a prominent area. These and other issues, such as recruitment, party and gender differences are explored in the context of this book

1 Local Representation: Theory and Practice

The local councillors considered in this book and those who have come before and who will succeed them, are a group of citizens who unlike elected members of the European, Scottish and Westminster Parliaments, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly, act in a largely voluntary capacity as representatives of the people. Jointly they have a long and impressive history of government of very diverse areas, from the rural districts to the major cities of the United Kingdom.

The Local Councillor in Britain

The spread of local as well as parliamentary democracy in the United Kingdom was founded on the Great Reform Act of 1832. The extension of the franchise from the 1830s created the anomalous situation of a ‘democratic’ House of Commons at the centre, with a wide variety of older and undemocratic forms of local administration. The pressures for change were felt particularly in the large industrial towns which were now represented in parliament but which frequently had little or no form of democratic local authority. In addition, the ideas of philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham were being taken up by political activists who sought to translate theory into practice. In his Constitutional Code (1843) Bentham had argued for a unitary state with a system of sub-national legislatures operating below the national legislature. Bentham’s supporters (who came to be known as the ‘Philosophic Radicals’), including Edwin Chadwick (perhaps most commonly associated with the 1848 Public Health Act, but also involved with the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act), were amongst the most prominent campaigners for reform for direct elections by secret ballots at both national and sub-national levels. Following a Royal Commission the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act was passed, creating municipal corporations, consisting of a mixture of elected councillors and aldermen, who were selected by those councillors, in many towns and cities. In Scotland the equivalent changes had been made two years before, in 1833, again following a Royal Commission. However, in rural areas reform was delayed until the 1888 Local Government Act, which introduced the new county councils and county boroughs, again involving a mixture of elected councillors and nominated aldermen. Elected county councils were created the following year.

Although there was a gradual extension of the franchise at both national and local levels it was not until the 1945 Representation of the People Act that the franchise for local and national elections became identical. Before then the differences had primarily been related to taxation, and specifically the payment of local rates.

Where women were concerned Railings and Thrasher’s (1997a) description of the local franchise as ‘a curious mix’ (p. 22) of enlightened and conservative attitudes and principles is appropriate. For example, the 1818 Vestries Act gave women a vote in parish vestries, although this was withheld from married women on the grounds that their husbands would vote on their behalf. In 1869 an amendment to the Municipal Franchise Bill gave women the vote in Municipal Corporations, but a later court case restricted this to single women and excluded the wives and daughters of ratepayers. At the national level women were given the right to vote under the 1918 Representation of the People Act, although this was restricted to those aged 30 and over. Universal adult suffrage was finally introduced by the 1928 Representation of the People Act.

In terms of election to local government Hollis (1987) has charted the early years of women’s activity. Among the first successes for women were elections to School Boards and Poor Law Boards. In 1870 when women were permitted to stand for the new School Boards Elizabeth Garrett headed the London school board results and two other women were elected, and from the 1880s the number of women members of School Boards and Poor Law Boards increased rapidly. From 1888 women began to contest elections to county councils and in 1889 two were elected to the London County Council, although a legal case later meant that their elections were strictly invalid and by 1891 neither was on the council. In 1895 women did become eligible to stand for rural district councils and urban district councils and immediately did so, with 140 women being elected to rural district councils that year. However, it was not until the 1907 Qualification of Women (County and Borough Councils) Act that women were finally free to contest all elected local government with the first women councillors being legally elected to town and county councils in 1910. Since then there has been a consistently steady, if unspectacular, growth in the proportion of candidates and councillors who are women in all forms of local government.

Local Democracy in Practice

The development of local democracy is closely linked with the growth of political parties. Gyford, Leach and Game (1989) have identified five stages of party political development in local government. The first, ‘diversity’, from 1835 to the late 1860s saw the existence of a great variety of parties which failed to meet the hopes of those who had campaigned for a democratised system of local government. The second period, ‘crystallisation’ lasted until the end of the nineteenth century. This saw the consolidation of local government and an expansion and greater degree of organisation within local parties. The extension of the electorate gave an incentive to develop local party organisations capable of real campaigning. In urban areas in particular there was the growth of party competition for seats, and by the end of the nineteenth century many municipal boroughs saw partisan divisions between the Conservative and Liberal Parties and were clearly controlled by one of the political parties. However, in smaller towns and rural areas ‘Independents’ remained dominant. The twentieth century saw ‘realignment’, with the established Conservative and Liberal Parties being challenged at local level by the emerging Labour Party which over forty years gradually replaced the Liberals in many parts of the country, particularly in the urban authorities. Following the Second World War there was a spell of ‘nationalisation’ of party politics with attempts being made to bring national and local party organisations closer together. This period also saw the continuation of the trend towards the politicisation of local government, although by the early 1970s in only just over half of councils were more than half the councillors elected with party labels (Gyford et al., 1989). The fifth stage described by Gyford et al., followed the reorganisation of local government in the mid-1970s and they termed this ‘reappraisal’. During this period both Conservative and Labour Parties attempted to strengthen and extend their roles in local politics, but the principal difference was the increased stress on ideology at local level. This spell also saw a greater formalisation of party politics in the machinery of local government, with reference to party groups, meeting rooms, staffing support and other developments designed to recognise the reality of the role of parties. As discussed in Chapter 4 the 1980s and 1990s have seen a continuation of partisanship in local government with both increasing competition for seats and a decline in the proportion of Independent candidates and councillors (for example, Railings and Thrasher, 1993; Railings and Thrasher, 1997b; Bochel and Denver 1995). However this period also saw the continuing impact of the ‘dealignment’ identified by Crewe et al., (1977) at national level reflected in elections at local level, with a decline in the proportion of votes cast for the two main parties and electors’ willingness to support other parties such as the Liberals, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.

Democracy, Representation and Participation

The general theoretical perspectives of democracy, representation and participation lie at the heart of government in western industrialised societies, including local government. Local authorities can be seen as an important instrument of democratic self-government in that they enable participation by the ordinary citizen in the running of the local community (Parry et al., 1992). As the only form of directly elected government in Britain, other than the Westminster Parliament (prior to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly that came into being in 1999), local government played a clear role in the democratic and electoral process of the United Kingdom (the position in Northern Ireland has however been rather different). Further, entry to local politics through election to a council post is arguably more widely accessible both geographically and numerically than at national level (Hollis, 1989). For example, most people over the age of 21 are eligible to stand in local elections, although paid employees may not stand for election to their own authority. Yet, despite this, and importantly for much of the discussion in this book, councillors are generally unrepresentative of their communities, at least in socio-economic terms, so that for instance, the numbers of women local councillors have increased only gradually, representing around one-quarter of councillors in England and one-fifth of councillors in Scotland by the late 1990s. Similarly, only a very small proportion of candidates and councillors originate from ethnic minority groups.

These three concepts are clearly inter-linked and discussion of one often involves reference to the others as will be seen below.

Democracy

Democracy is normally seen as a form of rule which enables people to exercise power. Abraham Lincoln, at the time of the American Civil War, made his famous distinctions between different types of democracy when he gave a speech praising what he called ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’. This can be used to highlight the contrasting notions of democracy. For example, government by the people can be termed ‘direct democracy’ or ‘participatory democracy’. Government for the people can be seen as a form of ‘representative democracy’. Direct democracy is where the people participate in policy making and implementation. This enables citizens to rule directly without the need for professional politicians. This form of democracy is rare in the UK, but the late 1990s saw a surge in the use of direct democracy, including the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish referendums in 1997 and 1998. Whilst these were strictly speaking consultative, no British government has yet gone against the result of a referendum and they therefore allowed the people to vote on specific issues and thus make decisions directly.

Representative democracy is where the people elect individuals to make decisions and run affairs on their behalf, for example through the Westminster parliament and local authorities. It is of the greatest relevance to this book as it is the basis upon which local authorities are elected and which gives them legitimacy. It can be seen both as indirect and as a limited form of democracy in the sense that local councillors are elected for a specific term and the electorate only participate by voting for those people they believe will run affairs in the way they want them run. The public do not participate directly in the running of local or national affairs. Despite this, the people remain a key element in the power structure, since it is they who by casting their votes ensure democracy takes place. Representatives are seen as working in the best interests of those they represent, and are held accountable at elections when they can be removed from office by the will of the people.

Representative democracy has limitations in that it does not enable individuals to vote on individual issues and that the people have to trust their representative to act for them, but it can be argued that it is the only practicable form of democracy in a modern society, since public consultation and debate on every issue involving thousands or millions of people would simply not be a feasible way to run a country or even a local council. Any attempt at involving this number of people in the decision making process would be lengthy, result in fewer issues being dealt with and be extremely costly. In addition, it can be argued that the people as a whole lack the specialist knowledge required on each issue to make decisions in their interest as a whole (Arblaster, 1987; Heywood, 1994).

From the 1960s there has been a revival of interest in classical democracy and, in particular, the idea of participation. This has reflected growing disenchantment with the bureaucratic and unresponsive nature of modern government, as well as declining respect for professional politicians. The gradual rise in the numbers of female councillors might be seen as one feature of this since, as some of the US literature on political culture illustrates, women representatives appear to have very different priorities from their male counterparts in that they are more concerned with public welfare rather than self-promotion and enrichment (Costantini, 1990). This would also relate to the argument of some writers who also view the women’s movement as a new social movement (Scott, 1990; Dalton and Knechler, 1990).

Liberal democracy is the form of democracy that has come to dominate thinking in western societies, generally as an accompaniment to the capitalist economic system (Leach, 1996). This is a form of democracy which incorporates checks and balances in the institution of government whilst at the same time respecting civil liberties and property rights. This is ‘democratic’ because citizens have the power to vote and thus the government are only in power through popular support. According to Heywood ‘The attraction of liberal democracy is its capacity to blend élite rule with a significant measure of popular participation’ (1994, p. 171). For some the perceived positive aspects of élite rule – government by experts, specialists, educated people – are balanced against accountability to citizens. In addition the existence of pressure groups acts as a further check on the power of government. There are a whole range of these groups each competing with each other to influence government. Liberal democracies are therefore sometimes described as pluralist democracies.

In summary, notions of democracy are based, to some degree, upon the idea that government can and does act in the public interest. However, there are inevitably a wide variety of criticisms of this view. For example, individualists and pluralists alike have questioned whether there is any such thing as public interest separate from the private interests of citizens. Others have doubted if there exists an electoral or constitutional mechanism through which the public interest can in practice be defined.

Drawing parallels between the ‘electoral market’ and other markets, some New Right thinkers (for example, Tullock, 1976 and 1988) have identified a perceived weakness in that they view politicians in the electoral market place as competing to win the support of different groups of voters. They therefore offer more and more programmes and policies, each of which can involve greater demand for resources. Public expenditure is therefore constantly under upwards pressure. From this perspective ‘democracy’ therefore has disadvantages. Hayek (1973), for example, has argued that whilst democracy is on balance desirable it poses dangers if not held in check.

From another part of the political spectrum, marxists also criticise liberal democracy, arguing that it is a means of legitimising capitalism. For marxists the state is seen as acting in the interests of capital and the ruling class. Control of government does not mean control of the state or the economy. Therefore the facade of elections and representative democracy are a means of suggesting to the public that they exercise power (see, for example, Miliband, 1982).

Representation

Representation has been described as ‘A process in which one person or group has the capacity, usually formally established, to speak and act on behalf of a larger number of other persons or groups’ (Roberts and Edwards, 1991, p. 123; see also Pitkin, 1972; Birch 1972). In the United Kingdom the two most obvious examples have been Members of Parliament at Westminster and council members who are elected to serve the local community. In politics representation creates a link between the government and the people. It implies that the interests of the people are paramount and that politicians serve as the people’s representatives. Elections themselves are seen as a representative mechanism. The fact that an individual has been elected entitles them to represent the people. However, what this mandate actually means and how politicians should act is a contentious issue. For example, some have argued that it is possible for politicians to become detached from society and the people, and from the real issues and that they may end up acting only in their own selfish interests (see for example, Costantini (1990) and Bledsoe and Herring (1990) who believe that this is more likely to happen with male politicians). Thus there is a danger that representation may become a substitute for democracy.

In the United Kingdom electoral representation has been based upon the ‘first past the post’ system whereby the candidate to obtain the most votes wins. This system is also used in the United States. Such a system does not equate the number of seats won by each party with the number of votes cast for each party at an election. This results in large parties tending to be over-represented whilst small parties are under-represented, so that in the UK parties are regularly elected to govern with little more than two-fifths of the electorate having voted for them. With its commitment to broad constitutional reform the Labour government elected in 1997 brought a rather different approach to representation, allowing the use of one form of more proportional representation (the Additional Member system) for the elections to the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, another (the party list system for the 1999 European elections) and establishing the Jenkins Commission to report on electoral reform (Jenkins, 1998). A proportion electoral system, such as those used in many European countries, tends to ensure a closer relationship between the number of votes cast for each party and the number of seats obtained.

A further aspect of representation, which is of relevance to this study, is ‘characteristic representation’. This suggests that representatives should be drawn from the group they are elected to represent and share its characteristics. A ‘representative’ government would therefore mirror the characteristics, groups and sections of society, such as social class, gender, ethnic groupings, religion and age, and in numbers that are roughly proportional to the numbers in the general population. Feminists have tended to support this notion of representation, believing that patriarchy operates to exclude women from positions in élite society and that a shift in the type of representation might produce a change. In the USA the National Organisation of Women has campaigned, alongside other groups, to improve the representation of women in areas such as politics. In the UK organisations such as the Fawcett Society and the 300 Group have pursued similar aims. At its most basic such a perspective assumes that only people drawn from a particular group can truly represent that group’s interests. This however, is rather simplistic since it suggests that such representatives are incapable of, or are not amenable to listening and taking on board the views of people different from themselves. A more enlightened interpretation of this view is that representatives may empathise with the situation, plight, circumstances of a particular group of people, but not actua...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Local Representation: Theory and Practice
• 2 The Development of Local Government
• 3 Local Government and the Representation of Women
• 4 Selection, Election and Council Work
• 5 Career, Vocation or Service?
• 6 Comparative Perspectives
• 7 The Future for Councillors
• Bibliography
• Index