Scrutiny and policymaking in local councils: how parties use council tools

Abstract

In recent years, political scientists have gained greater understanding of how national parliamentary parties use their parliamentary tools: that is under what conditions they submit parliamentary questions or amendments to legislation. We know surprisingly little about how local councillors use the tools at their disposal: under what conditions do these local councillors submit questions to the local executive? When do they submit amendments to local ordinances? We examine to what extent the use of amendments and questions reflects differences between local party groups' ideologies in terms of anti-elitism and the left-right dimension, and differences between coalition and opposition parties. On the basis of an analysis 454 local council groups in 53 Dutch municipalities we find considerable evidence for differences in the use of council tools between coalition and opposition parties.

Electoral Campaigns and Parliamentary Practice: Do Parties Pursue the Issues They Campaigned On?

“…An increase in an opposition party's issue attention in its manifestos leads to a higher number of PQs asked by an opposition party regarding this issue. This is in line with recent findings in the literature that opposition parties use PQs as a control instrument, scrutiny mechanism and agenda-setting tool, both in national parliaments (see, e.g., Green-Pedersen, 2019;Green-Pedersen & Mortensen, 2010;Höhmann & Sieberer, 2020;Otjes & Louwerse, 2018), as well as in local councils in other countries (see Otjes et al, 2023). Government parties, on the other hand, might be forced by economic, societal, or political problem pressure to devote their attention to other issues to a greater extent, whereas opposition parties have more leeway in continually focusing on issues that are advantageous for them (see, e.g., Borghetto & Russo, 2018;Froio et al, 2017;Green-Pedersen, 2019;Green-Pedersen & Mortensen, 2010;Seeberg, 2023).…”

“…Furthermore, the more seats a party obtains in parliament, the more PQs a party asks related to a specific policy issue, indicated by the positive and statistically significant coefficient for seats party (log). Both findings are in line with the findings of parliamentary actors' behaviour in local councils in The Netherlands (see Otjes et al, 2023).…”

Studying politics at the local level in Germany: a tale of missing data

“…This opens exciting new ways for gaining deeper insights into Dutch local politics (see, e.g., Otjes et al. 2022 ). In Germany, however, we are only scratching the surface of this data treasure—and, again, only if a large amount of external funding is provided.…”

“…Furthermore, the Open State Foundation successfully urged Dutch municipal councils to provide all council-related information (such as voting records, bills, or parliamentary questions) in a standardized and structured machine-readable format. This opens exciting new ways for gaining deeper insights into Dutch local politics (see, e.g., Otjes et al 2022). In Germany, however, we are only scratching the surface of this data treasure-and, again, only if a large amount of external funding is provided.…”

Scrutinising council scrutiny: from theoretical black box to analytical toolbox1

“…Others have focused on particular elements, such as the use of instruments and information (e.g. Peters and Castenmiller 2019;Otjes, Nagtzaam, and van Well 2022). The literature following the 2000 UK local government reform is a notable exception (e.g.…”