Sarah Odrakiewicz
The Superiority of Effectiveness over Legitimacy in Local Politics

Workshop "Effective and Democratic? Assessing the Input and Output Legitimacy of Democratization", University of Zurich and the Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau, March 06th to March 07th, 2014

The quality of democracy depends on its effectiveness as well as its legitimacy. While effectiveness and legitimacy are closely interrelated, especially in times of high mobility, effective political performance gains importance in municipal politics. On the local level, legitimacy is of secondary interest. As such, effective government performance is more decisive for securing support for the local political system than legitimacy. This expresses itself in government effectiveness promoting a sense of belonging to the city and trust towards municipal political institutions, as well as in government effectiveness fostering social and political participation. This study utilizes the data from the Democracy Audit conducted in Mannheim in 2013.