2020/09/16 by Jacob Torfing, Tina Øllgaard Bentzen, Marte Winsvold +1 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering #Political Systems and Governance #Public Policy and Administration Research
paper · doi:10.1080/03003930.2020.1821664
crossref issued 2020/09/16 · crossref published 2020/09/16 · crossref published-online 2020/09/16 · openalex publication_date 2020/09/16 · crossref created 2020/09/16 · crossref published-print 2022/05/04 · crossref deposited 2024/08/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article aims to test whether local governments can enhance the elected councillors’ perceived political leadership by changing the institutional design that conditions their ability to define problems that call for collective action, design policy solutions and mobilise support for their implementation. The study draws on new research on political leadership and institutional design and data from surveys conducted in Denmark and Norway. The analytical framework distinguishes between four different but overlapping institutional design strategies, and the main finding is that institutional designs aiming to enhance executive, collective or distributive political leadership are associated with an increase in perceived political leadership, whereas – surprisingly – institutional designs aiming to enhance interactive political leadership are not. Upon closer inspection, however, the impact of interactive institutional designs on political leadership seems to be conditioned on whether the power relation between politicians and administrators is balanced or unbalanced.