Institutional design for collective and holistic political leadership

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study and assess the content, functioning and impact of institutional reforms aiming to enhance collective and holistic political leadership at the level of local government. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a comparative case study of two Danish frontrunner municipalities drawing on relevant documents and qualitative interviews with both elected politicians and public administrators. Findings The authors found that institutional design is effective in promoting collective and holistic political leadership at the local level, even if no formal design options are available and the municipalities have to invent their own designs. Support both from both councilors and administrators is paramount for successful implementation of local political leadership reforms. Research limitations/implications Due to the purposive selection of a limited number of cases, the findings cannot be generalized to the population from which the cases are drawn. However, other municipalities may learn from and become inspired by the positive impact of the new institutional designs on collective and holistic political leadership. Practical implications Whereas some institutional political leadership reforms aim to enhance the power of the mayor and other reforms aim to create a cabinet or a committee system, the reforms the authors are studying aim to create a space for local councilors to work together across party and sector lines in creating collective and holistic policy solutions. The study shows that it is crucial that local councilors are involved in cross-boundary agenda setting before developing policies in standing committees and endorsing them in the council assembly. Social implications There is a large amount of more or less wicked problems that require the formulation and implementation of innovative policy solutions, which, in turn, call for a clear and determined political leadership. However, local politicians typically suffer from decoupling and tunnel vision. The results show that these problems can be solved through new institutional designs that promote a more collective and holistic political leadership that can take the local community forward. Originality/value Few studies have hitherto addressed the need for institutional reforms enabling collective and holistic political leadership through both theoretical and empirical analyses, but that is exactly what the authors try to accomplish.

Local political leadership: from managerial performances to leaders-hip hop on social media?

“…Local political leadership is a field of study which investigates the behaviors, roles, and contexts (institutional, organizational, and social) in which local politicians exercise their leadership role (e.g., Lowndes and Leach, 2004; Stoker, 2003; Torfing et al , 2019). This field of study can be considered as relatively new and emerging, given the recent trends of reforms which assigned a more relevant role to local governments in and across regions, nations, and countries (e.g., Beer et al , 2019; Budd and Sancino, 2016; Hambleton, 2014; Heinelt et al , 2018; Sancino and Hudson, 2020).…”

US Political Leadership and Crisis Communication During COVID-19

“…Political leaders are responsible for protecting their constituents from harm and economic damage (Comfort et al, 2020;Kearns et al, 2019). The phenomenon of political leadership relates to three broad areas of shaping policies, achieving policy goals, and mobilizing support (Torfing et al, 2020(Torfing et al, , 2019. Crisis leadership relates to leadership within the context of a crisis (Boin, 2009;Liu et al, 2020).…”

Italian mayors and the management of COVID-19: adaptive leadership for organizing local governance

“…In this paper we aim to advance studies on public leadership in local governance (Hambleton 2014;Sørensen and Torfing 2019;Torfing, Sørensen, and Bentzen 2019;Torfing et al 2020) by studying the role of the mayor in enacting leadership actions which aim to generate steering and coordination in local governance and to (co-) produce public services. This empirical setting is particularly important because it brings back notions of hierarchy and authority into the decentered, multilevel and multi-actor contexts for local governance.…”

“…We drew from the extant literature on public leadership in local governance (Bäck, Heinelt, and Magnier 2006;Berg and Rao 2005;Heinelt et al 2018;Hartley 2018;Hambleton 2014;Sørensen and Torfing 2019;Torfing, Sørensen, and Bentzen 2019;Trivellato et al 2019;Torfing et al 2020) and on the role of mayors in urban management and development (Lever 2001;McNeill 2001;Borraz and John 2004;Gissendanner 2004;Magnier, Navarro, and Russo 2006;Jayne 2012;Beal and Pinson 2014). We then explored the mayors' leadership actions through a qualitative survey of 25 mayors of municipalities belonging to the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Lombardy region -the region most affected by COVID-19.…”