Estudiar las democracias locales desde la perspectiva de los concejales. Democracia y actores políticos en los ayuntamientos españoles
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During the last years, the local level of government has gained influence and local democracies have merited attention of empirical studies in political science. Academic research has focused on the study of two of the most relevant institutions at the local level of government: mayors and boards of government. This trend has made city councillors an unstudied research subject. This study presents the design and preliminary results of the research: Nuevos espacios para el análisis del liderazgo político en España. Estudio de los concejales españoles y su papel en la estructura de Gobierno local a treinta años de ayuntamientos democráticos, devoted to understand and analyse the role of Spanish city councillors in municipalities up to 10.000 inhabitants. This study is framed by a European project with primary data derived from a common survey. This empirical study sheds light on various features of local councillors regarding to their political roles and careers. What is the role of city councillors, as political actors, in the local government, and what are the types of factors –agency or institutional– determining them the most. In the Spanish case, the research hypothesis is that institutional factors (i.e., the “strong mayor” type of local government) shape behaviours and roles of city councillors.