Call for papers: Local democracy in the Low Countries: at the base changing face? [the deadline has passed]
Local democracy in the Low Countries: at the base changing face?
Guest editors: Kristof Steyvers & Julien van Ostaaijen
Thematic outline
Following a tradition started in its predecessor Res Publica, Politics of the Low Countries is inviting scholars to contribute to a special issue on local democracy in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. We welcome contributions either discussing developments in multiple Low Countries or a single case.
Due to its proximity and tangibility, local government is often considered as the cradle and the laboratory of democracy. In its representative default, citizens conditionally transfer their sovereignty to elected mandate-holders rendering account at the end of the voting cycle. At this base level, the Low Countries share a parliamentary model in which only the local council is directly elected. This occurs via proportional lists often implying multiparty legislatures and majority formation through coalitions. These ground an indirectly elected collective and collegiate executive with an appointed mayor as a first-among-equals. Party governance connects and runs through these institutions. Meanwhile, representative practices change face with (attempts to curb) a lowering voter turnout, a personalization of the vote, a presidentialization of the executive mandate or party system fragmentation, volatility and polarization against a place-bound mixture of national and non-national list and/or independent candidates. The special issue seeks papers that cover these trends and tendencies in local elections, voting and mandate-holding in a geographic area where consociationalism customarily prevails.
In addition to alterations in representation, democratic innovations emerge. These aim to broaden and deepen citizen involvement in local policymaking to close the alleged gap between those who govern and the governed. This includes an array of instruments and mechanisms also prevalent in the Low Countries such as advisory boards, deliberative mini-publics, participatory budgets, referendums and citizen initiatives. They may also involve the co-creation or coproduction of public services and provisions. Whilst extant literature already probed into the design features of such innovations, the attitudes of different stakeholders towards a more participatory and direct democracy and particular instances thereof, important gaps remain. These pertain to the position and role of (organized) citizens (including parties), civil servants and politicians in such initiatives, the positive or negative effects or impacts of the trajectories and their coupling with or embeddedness in the representative system. The special aims to attract papers that shed light on these novel questions in a territory commonly characterized by governance through elected mandatories.
Against the similar and shifting playing field outlined above, the political systems of the Low Countries (states and regions alike) nowadays adopt and display various (in)formal rules of the game. This calls for a comparative assessment of the current patterns and dynamics of their local democracies. The editors therefore particularly welcome cross-national contributions addressing dimensions and aspects of local democracy in Belgium, Luxembourg and/or the Netherlands at the same time. However, they also appreciate submissions focusing on single countries and/or juxtaposing cases therein. The special is open to research conducted via various designs and methods. Both qualitative as well as quantitative or mixed outlooks are accepted.
Please hand in your abstract (up to a maximum of 500 words) through mail to kristof.steyvers@ugent.be and j.j.c.vanostaaijen@tilburguniversity.edu.
Deadline
The deadline for submitting a proposal is February 24th 2025!
Format
A research article in Politics of the Low Countries typically has a maximum of 10,000 words, including references, endnotes and bibliography. Further instructions can be found at: https://plc-journal.eu/authorinstructions.
Prospective timing
- Distribution of the call (January 2025)
- Submission of abstracts (February 24th, 2025)
- Assessment of abstracts (March 2025)
- Submission of first draft papers (Mid-June 2025)
- Internal review of first draft papers (Mid-July 2025)
- External review of first draft papers (Summer months 2025)
- Submission of second draft papers (Mid-October 2025)
- Internal review of second draft papers (Mid-November 2025)
- Submission of final draft (December 2025)
- Publication online (Beginning of 2026)
