Who runs for local political office and why?

This article appeared an an opinion piece in the Cork Independent on 8 May 2014

 

Not many people realise it but Irish county councillors have a song in their name. ‘The County Councillors’ Song’ first appeared in the Leinster Leader newspaper on 1 May 1990 and it goes as follows:

 

I am a county councillor, a very public man

To benefit the people I’ll do everything I can;

In all my waking moments for their welfare I will scheme

And in the arms of Morpheus of improvements I will dream.

A local legislator and a man of high renown,

I am the county councillor, the greatest man in town.

 

There are many different things that can be read into this verse, including the presumption at the time that local elected representatives would be male (to this day, women are significantly under-represented in Irish local government). The verse also gives a sense of the dual role of the councillor – on the one hand, ‘a local legislator’ and, on the other hand, a public representative who will do everything ‘to benefit the people.’

 

There is no doubt that these two elements of a councillor’s job serve as motivations for people who are considering standing for election. In other words, some people are driven by a desire to influence a local authority’s policies be it in the area of planning, roads or the environment. Others are driven by the desire to help individual citizens and this client-centred approach is sometimes referred to as the grievance-chaser motivation. Every politician in the country – at local or national level – will tell you that grievance-chasing is a vital aspect of their work in terms of winning re-election. Of course, other motivations might exist outside of the two mentioned above. For example, some people may stand for local election in an attempt to find an alternative route to self-fulfilment.

 

In 2009, before the last local elections, I wrote a book entitled All Politics is Local: A Guide to Local Elections in Ireland with my colleague, Liam Weeks. One of the things we wanted to do was to dig a little deeper into the types of people who stand for local election and what motivates them. We received over 500 responses to our survey which enabled us to come up with the following typology of local election candidates (as opposed to councillors) in Ireland.

 

The Aspirant: Someone not that interested in local office, but who sees it as a useful route to national politics.

 

The Local Broker: Someone looking to represent and fight for the interests of his or her community.

 

Policy-Maker: Someone driven by the desire to change local policies or bye-laws.

 

The Lobbyist: A candidate running to promote the cause of an interest group.

 

The Activist: An individual who enjoys politics and likes to devote time to it.

 

The Loyalist: Someone not particularly keen on electoral office but who runs because of a party request.

 

The Protector: This person runs because of familial links to a politician, either to maintain a tradition of family representation or to ‘protect’ a local seat when a relative transfers to the national arena.

 

The Dissident: Their motivation stems from their falling out with an organisation over an issue, be it a party or a local community group.

 

The Maverick: Their presence in the electoral contest is unpredictable and can be a product of idiosyncratic factors.

 

This classification is based on the actual analysis of candidates’ motivations as opposed to speculation about what drives them. The categories are not exhaustive or mutually exclusive – in other words, a candidate can be a policy-maker, an activist and an aspirant.

 

Whatever motivates people to stand for local elected office, we should be grateful to them. It is a very brave thing to do to put yourself on the ballot paper and lay yourself bare before the electorate. We have too many ‘hurlers on the ditch’ who are happy to criticise but not get involved in any process of change. A healthy democracy requires that we have genuine contests for seats and it is a worrying trend that the number of candidates offering themselves for seats on Cork City Council (31 members) has fallen consistently from 84 in 1974 to 59 in 2009. This represents a 30 per cent decrease in participation in 35 years with a ratio in 2004 of less than two candidates per seat.

 

Over the next two weeks, I will be looking at the 2014 numbers and casting an eye over the city’s six local electoral areas. I do so with admiration and respect for all of the candidates, no matter their personal motivations. The candidates, of course, are only one part of the equation and there is an onus on us to take the election process seriously and exercise our precious right to vote. I concur with Abraham Lincoln who once said, ‘Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their backs on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.’