CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES

An analysis of the literature revealed that there were a number of proposals that were considered would enhance Victorian local government’s democratic role. These proposals addressed a number of the limitations that were identified in section 2.3.1.2.

The first proposal related to the need for Victorian local government to achieve constitutional recognition in the federal context. It was considered that gaining formal status would reinforce Victorian local government’s democratic role and would add a greater level of protection to balance the absolute power of the state government over local government (Chapman 1997a, 1997b; Ellison 2000; Victorian Local Governance Association 2001a; Aulich and Pietsch 2002; Kiss 2004; Kane 2006). It was further stated that constitutional recognition would strengthen local government’s position and relevance within the political framework, increase its economic significance and provide greater protection for local community assets (Ellison 2000; Victorian Local Governance Association 2001a; Kane 2006).

Kiss (2004) maintained that constitutional recognition would address the current situation where local government was little more than an agent of state government (p.2) (also refer Ellison 2000; Aulich and Pietsch 2002; Kane 2006).

It was noted that there was not a consensus view, however, that constitutional recognition would address the broader issues of local government’s representation within the federal system (Galligan 1996).

Connected to the issue of constitutional recognition for Victorian local government was the discussion on whether there should be broader constitutional change. Research indicated that there was some support in Australia for a future federation with a two tiered structure based on the collapsing of state and local government into a regional

structure (Brown 2002). While this research was undertaken in Queensland it had relevance to all states as the current federal structure applied uniformly.

The second proposal related to Victorian local government’s voting system. Kiss (2003) maintained that the electoral provisions should be altered so that the right to vote was limited to those that lived within the municipality and did not include ratepayers who owned property in the local area but did not live there. Related to the property based voting system was the questioning of the practice to use postal voting, which made it easier for property based voters to vote (Kiss 2003).

The third proposal that was identified in the literature was that Victorian local government needed to move towards more participatory forms of democracy and address the negative elements of representative democracy. This was considered to be an important objective for Victorian local government due to the reduction in representative democracy that resulted from the amalgamation of Victorian local government in the 1990s (Hunt 1998a; Hill 1999; Mowbray 1999; Brackertz et al 2005).

It was stated that a greater focus on participatory democratic processes would address the democratic deficit as identified in section 2.3.1.2 and result in citizens being more engaged in the political issues that directly impacted on them (Pateman 1970; Saunders 1996; Galligan 1998b; Dollery and Marshall 2003; Brackertz et al 2005; Cuthill and Fien 2005; Wettenhall and Alexander 2005). It was also considered that engagement with the community between the formal election processes was fundamental to a democratic system and that government should not only respond to the best-resourced groups but also govern for all citizens (Rayner 1997; Frey and Eichenberger 1999; Brackertz et al 2005).

A greater engagement in local democratic processes would also address the distrust of government and the general apathy of the community in terms of civic involvement (Putnam 1993; Putnam 2000; Bentley 2001; Milburn 2004; Brackertz et al 2005; Cuthill and Fien 2005; Wettenhall and Alexander 2005; King 2006).

There were a number of strategies identified in the literature that addressed the translation from representative democracy to a participatory democratic environment. Saunders (1996) stated that there were four remedies to assist local government to address the negative aspects of representative democracy, which included attitude, consultation, transparency and communication. These principles underpinned a number of strategies that are discussed in this section.

The first proposal to assist Victorian local government’s participatory democratic processes was the development of a holistic democracy plan. This plan would articulate for all parties how the local government organization would work together to nurture and enhance democracy in-between elections (Williams 1998).

The second proposal to facilitate participatory democratic processes included the utilization of e-democracy and other community engagement techniques. These aspects are discussed in more detail in the following section on Victorian local government’s governance role.

The third proposal focused on two aspects related to local government elected representatives that were raised in the previous section on limitations to local government’s democratic role.

It was considered that there was a trend to reduce the powers of local government councillors, whereas a strong elected member role was an important element in a successful local government system (Newnham and Winston 1997). Elected representatives were important because they potentially provided a different perspective to the professional influence of management (Jones 1993; Newnham and Winston 1997; Reynolds 1999). Input from local government councillors was considered to be an increasingly important issue as the Victorian local government environment became more complex.

It was also proposed that the mayor not be rotated on an annual basis so that there was continuity in the representation of the local government council. A change to this process would bring the tenure of the mayor in line with other political leaders (Victorian Local Government Good Governance Panel 1998; Hill 2003). Changing the annual rotation of the mayor would also address what was considered to be a perpetual weakness in local political leadership and in the establishment of effective relationships (Martin and Simons 2002; Hill 2003).

A final proposal was the issue of measuring progress on establishing a healthy democracy. It was stated that a healthy democracy underpinned community well-being on a national level and that indicators should be developed to assess the health of the formal and informal institutions, the effectiveness of democratic rights and the culture of democracy (Salvaris 1998).

In section 2.3.1.2 there were a number of other limitations to Victorian local government’s democratic role that will be addressed in later sections. Limitations such as the impacts of globalization, apathy towards Victorian local government and its image more broadly will be discussed in the final section of this chapter that addresses issues that spanned more than one specific role. The treatment of citizens as customers will also be discussed further in the section on the services role of Victorian local government.

An analysis of the literature revealed that solutions to limitations such as the workload of local government councillors, the lack of candidates to stand for local government elections and using local government as a way to advance political careers in other tiers of government were not apparent.