TY - JOUR
T1 - How best to open up local democracy?
T2 - A randomised experiment to encourage contested elections and greater representativeness in English parish councils
AU - Ryan, Matt
AU - Stoker, Gerry
AU - John, Peter
AU - Moseley, Alice
AU - James, Oliver
AU - Richardson, Liz
AU - Vannoni , Matia
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Interventions aimed at increasing the supply and representativeness of elected officials range from facilitative to the formally authorised. This paper reports on a field experiment aimed at testing the effect of facilitative approaches at the local level based on a collaboration between parish councils and the research team. We randomly allocated 818 parish council clerks across five counties in Southern England, either to receive information and the opportunity for member training for recruitment, or not to receive this contact. We investigated the effect of this intervention on political recruitment. Despite evidence of an effect on use of social media, our results suggest that there are significant institutional and structural barriers to participation in local politics that cannot easily be overcome using facilitative measures.
AB - Interventions aimed at increasing the supply and representativeness of elected officials range from facilitative to the formally authorised. This paper reports on a field experiment aimed at testing the effect of facilitative approaches at the local level based on a collaboration between parish councils and the research team. We randomly allocated 818 parish council clerks across five counties in Southern England, either to receive information and the opportunity for member training for recruitment, or not to receive this contact. We investigated the effect of this intervention on political recruitment. Despite evidence of an effect on use of social media, our results suggest that there are significant institutional and structural barriers to participation in local politics that cannot easily be overcome using facilitative measures.
U2 - 10.1080/03003930.2018.1473769
DO - 10.1080/03003930.2018.1473769
M3 - Article
SN - 0300-3930
JO - Local Government Studies
JF - Local Government Studies
ER -