Recurring discussion
One of the municipalities where politicians have discussed the possibility of cutting the number of city councilors is in Hjørring Municipality.
Here are the 31 local politicians. The highest number allowed, and as many as in Aalborg. A municipality with more than three times as many inhabitants.
But it should be cut down to 27, according to both Erik Høegh Sørensen (UP) and Frode Larsen (DF), who proposed a cut at the last city council meeting.
“After the massive savings in Hjørring in recent years, the city council itself should show moderation and save the million dollar expenditure for four city council members,” they wrote in the proposal.
Number of politicians in the North Jutland city councils
- Hørring: 31
- Aalborg: 31
- Frederikshavn: 29
- Mariagerfjord: 29
- Jammerbugt: 27
- Brønderslev 27
- This place: 27
- Vesthimmerland 27
- Reimage 25
- Morsø: 21
- Læsø: 9
And the discussion is not new in Hjørring, says mayor Søren Smalbro (V).
– We have had the discussions pretty much every year when we make the budget, so we also had that this autumn. There are views on whether we should not also save on ourselves when we are now saving elsewhere.
– I recognize that point of view, but it is also saving democracy. That’s where we’ve landed so far. But it may well be that we will reduce the number one day.
However, that day was not the last city council meeting.
It was only the proponents who themselves voted in favor – the rest voted against.
– If I’m being completely honest, I think the economy is too small for me to think it’s a good idea to tinker with it, says mayor Søren Smalbro (V). Archive photo: Bente Poder
For the mayor, it is not a matter of heart whether the city council is just two or four seats less. If you went from 31 to 27 politicians, you would only save less than a million kroner, he explains.
He believes, on the other hand, that there must be broad agreement on this if the size is tampered with.
– So far there has been a majority who did not want it for reasons of political breadth. There are perhaps some of the lists and parties that today are the smallest, which would then not be able to get a place.
Small municipality – small city council?
In one of the region’s smallest municipalities, Morsø, politicians have also had to discuss how many politicians are actually needed.
It has been part of the savings catalog several times, but now a formal decision had to be made.
And on Mors in particular, the discussion has now taken on a new angle.
The population is falling and has now hit just under 20,000 inhabitants.
This opens the way for a completely new composition of the municipal board.
One where there can be up to 9 members.
Today they are 21.
It’s about signals
Back in the spring, the municipality had a visit from Ulrik Kjær, who is a researcher in municipal elections and local democracy at the University of Southern Denmark.
He had with him calculations of how the city council would have looked after the last election if there were fewer politicians.
For example, the local Democratic Balance list would not have been elected if you just cut the number down to 19. And if you cut down to the limit of 9, there would only be Venstre and the Social Democracy left.
The Social Democrats are in favor of slimming down the municipal council, says the party’s mayoral candidate Jens Dahlgaard.
– When we save in so many other areas in the municipality such as nursing homes and schools, we also believe that we should look at ourselves and put our own stools on the line.
– We planned to cut two places. That way we hoped it would be edible for most people, says Jens Dahlgaard (S). Photo: Morsø Municipality
Jens Dahlgaard acknowledges that you would only be able to save 3-400,000 kroner by abolishing a few political stools, which, on the whole, is not very much money, he explains.
The party’s position is about more than money.
– It’s about showing the signal that we also want to save on ourselves. When our population declines, the citizens must, in terms of fairness, also feel that we ourselves are contributing something. So the economy fills up, but it is also the symbol and the signal that we look at ourselves.
However, there was far from a majority in favor of that signal.
Both the Liberals, the Danish Democrats, the Radicals and the Conservatives voted to keep the current number.
Only the Social Democratic Party and Democratic Balance voted against.
– We believe it is important that there is an opportunity for small parties to be represented as well. By reducing the number, it will require a larger share of the vote to get a member elected, says mayor Hans Ejner Berthelsen (V).
Is this not a place where you could find money, so you avoided a similar saving elsewhere?
– The savings resulting from reducing by 2 members will not be large compared to the democratic loss.
Although the possibility is there, Mayor Han Ejner Bertelsen (V) does not believe that Morsø Municipality should have fewer politicians in the future. Archive photo: Claus Søndberg
According to Ulrik Kjær, there are two things in particular that politicians must consider before tinkering with the size of the city councils.
How many different kinds of people and attitudes must be involved, and how efficiently must the process run?
– Most politicians will say that the more votes we get into the debate, the more democratic it is.
– But a political discussion with far too many voices, which must be heard all the time and must always include the last argument, can also lead to the decisions never being made.
Ulrik Kjær conducts research in, among other things, municipal elections and local democracy at the University of Southern Denmark. Photo: University of Southern Denmark
Symbol politics
Even if it is a discussion that is on the cutting edge, an adjustment of two members will not make a big democratic difference, the researcher assesses.
– It is not the case that democracy as such is affected by whether there are just slightly fewer or more. There must be a significant change in the number before it becomes of great real importance for political work.
– This also means that some of those discussions sometimes come to be about something else that has nothing to do with the discussion, says the researcher and points to the discussions about economics.
– That argument has taken up a disproportionate amount of space in some discussions. I can follow it, but it is symbolic politics.
– If you sit in a municipality with three to four billion kroner in the budget, and you have difficulty getting the finances together, then you probably shouldn’t count on the economy to be saved by dropping some municipal politicians.
More than one in three disappear
In one place in North Jutland, however, a significant change is on the way.
Region North Jutland.
There are currently 41 local politicians in the region led by regional council chairman Mads Duedahl (V).
But after the new health reform, the regional council is shrinking sharply.
They go from 41 members to 25.
And that makes sense, says Mads Duedahl.
– I think the size should reflect the tasks you have. After the new health reform, we will not have the same number of committees and positions as we have today.
– If we had had 41 members as now, we could have had members who did not sit on any committee.
– Hand on heart, I also think that 41 today is too many.
– It is a size that does not fit with the number of tasks we have. That is why there are people who, in my view, do not have enough tasks to work on, which are also interesting, in relation to how much time you spend on them.
– We will get fewer committee positions, but they will have more weight. So I think in many ways, the regional council will be even more interesting to sit in as an ordinary member than before. There just won’t be a need for so many, says Mads Duedahl (V). Archive photo: Henrik Bo
Although the chairman of the regional council thinks it is a relevant, democratic discussion, how many parties can enter in the future, his own home-made calculation shows that all the parties that are represented today would still have been represented with a regional council on 25.
He is also not worried about local representation, as according to him the people of North Jutland are good at voting locally.
– It is a different situation in the future Region East. There they get more municipalities than regional council members. So there they cannot even in theory be represented all the way around. That, I think, is something else.
Fewer can be easier
Back in Hjørring, mayor Søren Smalbro (V) has not made any similar calculation.
That it would make some things easier if there were fewer of them is also not an argument that he believes holds water.
– If 31 people can’t agree on anything, then 27 people can’t either.
– Democracy must not be easy, it must be good.
2024-12-07 17:23:00
#politicians #discussing #possibility #fire
What is the relationship between the number of representatives and group competence as described by Kjær and in Theorem 2, 3, and 4 presented in [[1](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1807.06157.pdf)]?
The text provided discusses the ideal number of representatives in a political forum. It argues that exceeding a certain threshold of voices, while seeming more democratic, can lead to inefficiency and stalled decision-making.
Ulrik Kjær, a researcher on local democracy, suggests that slight variations in the number of representatives don’t significantly impact democracy. He believes a substantial change is necessary to affect how political work unfolds.
**The text does not explicitly state a magic number of people and attitudes needed for an optimally functioning democracy, as this likely varies depending on context and specific goals.**
The example of the Region North Jutland in Denmark illustrates this point. They are reducing their regional council from 41 to 25 members based on the belief that the smaller size better reflects the task scope, leading to more focused, efficient work and more meaningful responsibilities for each member.
However, the article doesn’t present a definitive answer to how many different kinds of people and attitudes must be involved or how efficiently the process must run to ensure a healthy democracy.
