Multilevel Governance: Political and electoral aspects

Many regional and local governments have elected councils or political leaders, but the presence of elections does not necessarily imply meaningful democratic governance. In some countries, elected subnational bodies are largely advisory or supervisory rather than empowered governments; in others, local or regional elections may offer little genuine political competition. Even where elections are free and fair, electoral representation may be limited, or elected leaders may have limited authority to set priorities or make decisions.

Understanding the political and electoral dimensions of multilevel governance therefore requires looking beyond whether elections take place to ask who is elected, how they are elected, what institutions they represent, and how much political authority they actually exercise.

Local governance institutions are among the most immediate points of contact between citizens and the state, and elected local representatives provide an important channel through which citizens and communities can influence public decisions.

Provisional data suggests that there are approximately 548,000 local governance institutions worldwide, led by 9.1 million elected local representatives. This translates into approximately one elected local representative for every 912 people globally, although the intensity of local electoral representation differs enormously across regions and countries.

For instance, Europe averages roughly one local representative for every 577 residents, and Asia about one for every 649, compared with approximately one for every 2,752 people in the Americas, 3,501 in Oceania, 3,710 in MENA, and 5,068 in Africa. There regional averages hide substantial variations within each global region.

Moreover, in some countries, local deliberative bodies are not elected at all, meaning that citizens lack this direct channel of local political representation. The number of representatives is therefore only one dimension of local democracy: understanding the quality and inclusiveness of representation—including whether elections are competitive, representatives exercise meaningful authority, and women and other groups are adequately represented—is equally important.

The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) data set explores whether regional and local governments are elected, whether those elections are free and fair, and the extent to which subnational officials exercise meaningful political power and autonomy from the central government. UN Women’s latest global analysis finds that women still hold only about 36 percent of seats in local deliberative bodies.