I hadn't realised until just now that we have 58 councillors in Edinburgh. Crikey.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
How many?!?
(10 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Great. There must be an (inverse) straight line relationship between that number and the quality of the cooncil.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I think there used to be more. A friend of ours used to be a councillor but was asked if he would take redundancy payment after a reorg in the mid 2000's.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"The city of Portland is governed by the Portland City Council, which includes the Mayor, four Commissioners, and an auditor. Each is elected citywide to serve a four year term. The auditor provides checks and balances in the commission form of government and accountability for the use of public resources. In addition, the auditor provides access to information and reports on various matters of city government."
Population (2010)
• City 583,776
• Density 4,288.38/sq mi (1,655.31/km2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon
Population (2010)
• Total 486,120
• Urban density 4,776/sq mi (1,844/km2)Posted 12 years ago # -
"The Grand Council of Basel-Stadt (German: Grosser Rat) is the legislature of the canton of Basel-Stadt, in Switzerland. Basel-Stadt has a unicameral legislature. The Grand Council has 100 seats, with members elected every four years. Members of the canton's executive, the Executive Council, are elected on the same day."
Population (2011)
- Total 191,542
- Density 5,176.8/km2 (13,407.9/sq mi)Capital Basel
Subdivisions 3 municipalities
Government
- Executive - Executive Council (7)
- Legislative - Grand Council (100)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel-City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cantonal_executives_of_Switzerland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cantonal_legislatures_of_Switzerland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assembly_of_Switzerland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Council_of_StatesI think the Swiss can teach us more about democratic accountability than the Americans.
Posted 12 years ago # -
One could also look to France as a model. Three tiers of local/regional government:
http://www.citymayors.com/france/france_gov.htmlAnd also a national assembly plus a senate.
If we had kept the old regional councils in Scotland, and added the Scottish Parliament on top, that would be a rough equivalent, but without the very local small scale level of representation/administration involved in a French 'commune' for example.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@crowriver, indeed on the face of it compared to the commune, prefecture etc etc cake layering en france, ours looks positively respectable.
One point about france as an example - an area close to our hearts - roads - its a lot easier to deal with the local commune as they are (by definition) 'local', indeed you may know them personally.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 12 years ago #
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"I think the Swiss can teach us more about democratic accountability than the Americans."
I'm not saying that Portland/American is 'better'.
Nor is this only about democracy.
In parts of America local decisions can be taken (or at least influenced) by Town Meetings.
In France, if a town wants a tram (for instance) it can raise local taxes.
In Edinburgh it's not always clear how much the politicians are in charge. The tram impasse was only sorted when the new Chief Exec was in post.
The Lothian Regional days were good. More money around and a better class of politician (I suggest).
The decision to abolish the regions was a political one - at Westminster.
So that's a different sort of accountability/democracy...
Posted 12 years ago # -
The Lothian Regional days were good. More money around and a better class of politician (I suggest).
There were different politicians for different levels: much more local decisions taken at district council level, regional strategic planning etc. at the region level. Efficiencies were possible because budgets and expenditure for several different districts were shared. Finally the Scottish government has realised the unitary authorities are less efficient and need to share services.
Many of the decisions that regional councils used to take are now in the hands of national quangos (eg. Transport Scotland). I'm not convinced that is a good thing, as they are too susceptible to ministerial diktat. The regional councils had their own accountability through elected regional councillors, a bulwark against central control to some extent. The last remnants of this regional accountability are the regional health boards and the regional constabularies (soon to be abolished and centralised).
It's a bitter irony of the devolution that we have more 'national' autonomy and accountability through the Scottish parliament, but are losing regional autonomy almost entirely, with only the local unitary councils giving some local accountability. It may be cheaper this way, but cheaper is not necessarily better where democracy is concerned.
Posted 12 years ago #
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