The Insulation of Local Politics Under the Nonpartisan Ballot

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationships between partisan and nonpartisan voting patterns in four cities using nonpartisan municipal elections. It is part of a larger comparative study on the process of policy formation in middle-sized cities. The data have been used to test the nonpartisan rationale which states that the removal of party labels from the ballot insulates local elections from state and national political party influences.The “insulation” argument states that national political parties do not and cannot adequately serve the needs of the local political unit. Their intrusion into the local scene invariably represents the introduction of irrelevancies which confuse the voters and prevent them from dwelling on local issues in city elections. Thus, the nonpartisan idea is partially based on the belief that local democracy will be improved through rationalizing its political universe. Citizens will choose well if specific, pertinent, and familiar questions are posed to them.

A New Look at the Republican Advantage in Nonpartisan Elections

“…4 Indeed, there is some support for this minorityparty hypothesis. For example, while Williams and Adrian (1959) presented evidence that nonpartisan elections benefit Republicans by suppressing Democratic turnout, their findings also indicate that the nonpartisan ballot allowed Democrats to perform better in some Republican-dominated cities. Similarly, Wildavsky (1964) demonstrated that the Republican city of Oberlin, Ohio's, switch from partisan to nonpartisan elections actually benefited Democratic city council candidates.…”

The Impact of Issue Voting on a Local Nonpartisan Election

“…In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many municipalities (and two state legislatures) adopted the Progressive ideal of nonpartisan elections in an effort to improve the caliber of the candidates by insulating them from the negative effects of partisan competition such as graft and corruption (Williams andAdrian 1959, 1052-53) and produce more nonpolitical "businesslike" administrators (Adrian 1952, 766). However, research has shown that nonpartisan and partisan elections tend to bear some strong political resemblances.…”

Parti Es and Participation in British Local Government and Some American Parallels

“…The significance of this argument cannot be assessed without more careful specification of the behaviors associated with local democracy in comparing the two systems. For example, British local council members seldom aspire to national office (Committee on the Management of Local Government, 1967), but neither do studies of American council members suggest that these bodies are filled with nationally ambitious leaders (Williams and Adrian, 1959;Adrian, 1958;Freeman, 1958). There have been strong forces reducing the partisan character of local politics in American cities, stemming, to be sure, from very different sources than does the parliamentary dominance of the system found in Britain, but clearly having important effects on how national partisan politics is reflected in local government.…”