Are citizens looking for alternatives to bridging-and-bonding leadership? A secondary analysis of 38 population surveys and their impact on profiles for the Dutch mayoralty

Over the last decades the selection procedure for Dutch mayors has gone through a gradual but steady process of democratization, with municipal councils now having a decisive role. An emerging practice in the selection process is that councillors use population surveys to inquire what citizens expect of their new mayor to collect input for the profile text that describes the desired leadership qualities. While this instrument can be considered a hybrid democratic innovation, citizens’ preferred leadership style and to what extent and how survey results are included in the profiles remained unclear. Our cluster analysis of 22,894 survey responses shows that citizens differ considerably in what they expect of mayors, and that these expectations do not necessarily align with the traditional leadership style of Dutch mayors. Further, we find that the survey results do typically find their way to the profile texts, but also that their role often remains unclear. The current practice in population surveys, therefore, carries a clear risk of disappointing citizens. Citizens are asked for input, but how that input is used in the selection procedure remains ambiguous, and mayors might be unable to live up to the expectations because of the characteristics of the office.