Contacts of Croatian and Slovenian local councilors with local actors

Zusammenfassung

The quality of local representative democracy crucially depends on the quality of linkages that representatives maintain with those they ought to represent. As discussed in Chapter 2, the particular value of local government lies in the ease at which local citizens establish contact with local councilors, which fosters inclusion, knowledge, and efficacy on the side of citizens (Andrews et al., 2011; Beetham, 1996; Lowndes et al., 2006). Local councilors are rational vote-maximizers (Mayhew, 1974; Thrasher et al., 2015), as vote maximization is a precondition for securing office and policy goals (Müller and Strøm, 1999), and contacts with local actors also greatly benefit the councilors themselves.