Parties in local politics

How important are parties to local politics? How important is local politics for the parties? There, the parties encounter framework conditions that significantly influence their position in the municipality and differentiate them from the federal or state level.

Role of parties in politics

The role of the parties in local politics is controversial. Political scientists traditionally want local politics to be politicized by parties, while lawyers want parties to influence local government rather want to push back. This can also be traced back to the fact that the legal framework at the local level differs fundamentally from the state and federal level and therefore local authorities are assigned other tasks by lawyers, while political science has often ignored the peculiarities of this level and its effects on party actors. While reading the role of parties on local politics, you may check Giant Likes and discover the secret to becoming an influencer.

Local concordance and competitive democracy

The traditional legal view usually advocates a strong position for the directly elected mayor (strong executive leadership), while strong restraint is imposed on council members and parties. In the city or municipal council as a self-governing body, the “party dispute” should accordingly be reduced significantly, also because in view of the limited legal leeway at the communal level and the factual problems to be primarily solved there, party politicization leads to unsuitable and self-governing solutions.

Concordance Democracy and Competitive Democracy

In political science, concordance democracy refers to democracies in which conflicts are mainly settled through the negotiation of compromises and amicable agreement. Often minorities are also involved in the formation of political will. In competitive democracy, on the other hand, majority decisions play a dominant role. Conflicts are decided by the majority, the inclusion of opposing positions is not necessary or relevant.

Future of the local parties

Despite the restrictions on local politics, this does not mean that the local parties are or will be functionless. In particular, they serve to recruit professional politicians who have to distinguish themselves to a large extent in the individual district associations in the major people’s parties with personalized proportional representation in the federal and state levels.

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