This study examines the organization and funding of the election campaigns of independent local parties in the Netherlands. Due to their representation in the national parliament, Dutch national...Show moreThis study examines the organization and funding of the election campaigns of independent local parties in the Netherlands. Due to their representation in the national parliament, Dutch national parties receive public subsidy. As such, they are able to transfer funds to their local divisions in the municipalities across the country, in order to finance their party activities including election campaigns. Independent local parties, however, do not qualify for these funds, since they are not represented in the Dutch legislature. How, then, do independent local parties fund and organize their election campaigns? Based on a survey amongst more than 300 respondents, the most important campaign activities, most common expenditures and the most common sources of income could be identified. The most common methods of campaigning include placing campaign boards and posters throughout the municipality, participating in election debates, flyer actions, publishing the election program on the party’s website, performing local radio or television shows, advertising in local or regional newspapers and enhancing familiarity by using Facebook. The most parties have spent their money on campaign boards and posters, advertisements and flyer actions, while the most money per party is spent on advertisement, canvassing and other expenditures. On the revenue side, the most parties received their money for the campaign budget from council member contributions, membership fees and private member donations, while the highest amounts of money per party were received from council member contributions, aldermen contributions and other income sources. It is also found that the number of party members, the municipality size, the number of council members and the number of aldermen on the one hand, and the size of the campaign budget on the other hand are positively correlated. Their explanatory value on the organization of the election campaigns, however, is low, just as the influence of the party type. While about 45 percent of the respondents thinks public funding of their election campaigns is necessary, a larger proportion of them thinks public funding would be a desirable development. The key argument is that almost all respondent want a level playing field when it comes to regulations on private donations and public party funding. The results of this study show that proponents and opponents of public party funding both think that independent local parties and national parties should be treated the same in this regard.Show less
In 2002, a new Local Government Act (LGA) was introduced in Dutch legislation. An important objective of the LGA was to improve the councillors’ representative role and to revive local governance...Show moreIn 2002, a new Local Government Act (LGA) was introduced in Dutch legislation. An important objective of the LGA was to improve the councillors’ representative role and to revive local governance for citizens. Ten years have passed since the introduction of the law, but not all of its objectives have been reached, in particular with regard to the strengthening of the representative role of councillors. Citizens still judge councillors the same as before the introduction of the LGA. Although the position of the council towards the Board of Mayor and Aldermen did improve, councillors did not enhance their external orientation in their relation to the citizenry. It seems that in the realization of the LGA, the political-philosophical foundation of the term ‘representative’ has barely been discussed. Neither the Royal Committee that proposed the legislative reforms or the Dutch government stated their definition and objectives with regard to the representative role explicitly. As a result, the LGA was manifested in municipalities in various ways and the representative role of councillors in particular became the least improved function. I argue that with respect to introducing measures to strengthen the representative role, it is inevitable to first and foremost discuss the political-philosophical background of this term. It becomes clear that because of ideological differences, representatives will implement this function in various ways. It remains to be seen whether it is possible and desirable to define measures in order to ‘improve’ the representative role.Show less
