From perennial bridesmaids to fully fledged spouses : advancing the comparative study of local elections and voting

Existing approaches to the study of local elections and voting often result in a characterization of these as of a lower rank, and the literature has long been dominated by empirical single-country studies that are often limited to a sole electoral term. We argue that local elections and voting as political phenomena should be situated within the broader context of multilevel democracy and that a more comparative approach should be applied. A theoretical framework including vertical integration and horizontal variation is introduced. Also, five sections are included in which local elections are described: a brief overview of the local government system, local elections and their place in the multilevel system, features of the local electoral system, local electoral outcomes, and conclusion and discussion. Finally, the empirical study of local elections in 40 European countries is introduced