The sources of contemporary authority for mayors Producing the necessary capacity to govern in local government

For political leaders, having authority is a precondition for producing the necessary capacity to govern. Yet, around the world executives face skepticism regarding their authority. Therefore, especially in local government, new leadership styles from executives are called for. However, the sources of contemporary political authority remain underexplored. The focal question of this article is how mayors’ authority sources relate to their role emphasis. Using a five-part typology, we analyzed the comparative relevance of fourteen of these sources through a mixed methods study of mayors in the Netherlands. The results show that Dutch mayors largely derive authority from their non-partisan role, their personal interactions and political skills; and that role emphases to some extent affect their authority sources. This implies that mayors can enhance their authority through their personal leadership style to some extent. At the same time, mayors’ statutory position strongly affects the sources of authority they rely upon. 1 The study of contemporary political authority Whereas having authority is crucial for producing the necessary capacity to govern, political analysts around the world have signaled a loss of authority by political leaders (e.g. Hay 2007). Due to the rise of a critical citizenry, the behaviors, actions and decisions of political leaders are increasingly open to debate and scrutiny (Norris 2011; Hartley and Benington 2011). Decision-makers face a general skepticism towards traditional authority, and especially the more formal types of political authority (Lidstrom 2007). Scholars hold that contemporary leaders are valued for showing personalized leadership (Garzia, 2011). Addressing the challenge of authority requires leaders developing new forms of political authority (Hajer 2009; Teles 2014). Yet, the sources of contemporary political authority remain underexplored (Hartley and Benington 2011). In response, this study analyses the sources of authority of political leaders. The focal question of this article is how leaders’ perceptions of authority sources relate to their role emphases. Our aim is to contribute to the ongoing debate of how individual leaders can produce a capacity to govern in different institutional contexts through their personal behavior (Stone 1993; Stoker 1998; Mullin et al. 2004; Helms 2014; Teles 2014). The current study focuses on local government as it has an important role in the political representation of citizens, in the provision of public services and in tackling current societal challenges (Copus 2006; Barber 2013). We take local government as the focal point of the tensions between calls for stronger executive leadership and calls for new forms of democracy that have produced conjointly a need for new types of capable leaders (Borraz and John 2004; Steyvers et al. 2008). Several scholars have tried to determine the sources of authority employed by political leaders, the most influential being Weber (1964). The current study is not claiming that such attempts fail to provide valuable insights into the nature of political authority, but rather that they provide insufficient insight into the concrete sources that different types of contemporary political leaders use to attain authority (see also Hartley and Benington 2011, 208). New forms of political authority have developed that cannot easily be pinned down using existing