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100 _aBreton,Charles, Lucas, Jack and Taylor, Zack
_948418
245 _aLocal autonomy: Unconditional elites and conditional publics
260 _aLocal Government Studies
300 _a49(6), Dec, 2023: p.1263-1284
520 _aThis paper investigates elite and mass attitudes towards local autonomy. Using surveys of more than 1,200 elected municipal politicians and 5,800 citizens in Canada, we ask three questions: Do citizens agree with their elected representatives about the need for increased power for local authorities? Are predictors of support for expanded local power similar among elites and the public? Finally, do elected politicians understand their constituents’ attitudes on local autonomy? We find that elites and citizens differ substantially in their attitudes towards local autonomy: politicians overwhelmingly support increased power for local governments, while citizens’ preferences are conditional on their support for the current provincial government, level of education, and ideological alignment with their local community. Moreover, politicians display no knowledge of citizens’ preferences regarding local autonomy. We explain the implications of our findings for theoretical debates about citizen support for local autonomy and for practical debates regarding the empowerment of local governments. – Reproduced https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03003930.2022.2098722
773 _aLocal Government Studies
906 _aLOCAL GOVERNMENT
942 _cAR