This book fills an important gap by analyzing local elections through a new theoretical framework applied to a large survey of five consecutive local elections and 20,000 respondents.

Using the theory of second-tier elections and voting, it sees local elections as part of a vertical relation with parliamentary elections while sharing horizontal characteristics and variations with elections in other local units. Taking a diagonal view to the analyses, the book reveals how vertical congruence varies horizontally across municipalities over time. With its focus on Denmark and covering different features of local elections such as local turnout, local party systems, split voting, and national politics’ impacts, it offers analytical tools for analyzing local elections as well as food for thought regarding local representative democracy.

This book will be of key interest to scholars, students, and practitioners in local elections/government, electoral studies, party systems, and more broadly in local democracy, political science, and public administration and policy.

Ulrik Kjaer is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Management at the University of Southern Denmark.