World Forum for Democracy – LAB 20: "Young mayor" programme

The young mayors of the United Kingdom: a school for local democracy?

04.11.2014

Every year since 2004, the young inhabitants of the London borough of Lewisham have elected their "young mayor" to represent them and carry out with them concrete projects close to their hearts.  But does this office of "young mayor", which exists in many other British cities, really prepare someone for "real political life"?  Organised in partnership with the Congress, one of the "Laboratories" (LABs) of the World Forum for Democracy sought to answer this question.

Jacob Sakil and Alice Schweigert held this office several years ago and they say it enabled them to discover the realities of political life at local and also national and European level, since it brought them into contact with other young elected representatives, notably in Croatia.   The borough of Lewisham provides its young mayors with an annual budget of £30 000 which they must manage in keeping with the expectations of their electorate, whom they also represent in dealings with adults.  The young mayors and their advisers hold meetings once a week and often meet their "constituents". While much of their work is in the sport and leisure sector, they also tackle "serious" topics, such as the prevention of alcoholism and mental health or issues concerning housing for young people and access to employment. They have forged numerous contacts with young people in other countries who have been elected within incomparable structures.

What "power" do young mayors have?

However, the enthusiasm of the two young Britons was not shared by all the participants in the LAB, like Mohamed Alsaud, a civil society militant (Syria), whose feeling was that young people's councils served above all to embellish the image of those in power, or even to channel the potential dangers feared by the authorities from the true power of young people: "They are given an area in which they can be more easily contained but perhaps they should create their own area", he pointed out. While it was true that young people's councils and young mayors looked into "all the problems facing society", as the "biggest mistake" would be to confine them to the topics considered to be of interest only to young people, they had no real tangible power and could only express opinions on matters over which they had no control.

The Congress Rapporteur on youth participation, Nataliia Pilius (Russia, ILDG), reviewed the initiatives of the Congress in this area and presented the ones implemented with the young people in her sector, the Tula district, during European local democracy week last October.  She wanted young people to become more involved in municipal life and to "no longer elect mayors who refused to work with them".  She thought that the Congress, in the same way it set a quota of women for its delegations, might demand a minimum number of young elected representatives for each country in future, and declared herself willing to experiment with the English young mayors model in her district.

Young people are perfectly capable of running the library budget

Michael Salomo, elected mayor of Hassmersheim (Germany) last year, at the age of 26, is currently the country's youngest mayor.  While he did not doubt the interest of young people's councils for the under-18s, he thought that, upon reaching adulthood, young people should immediately start tackling the real concrete issues in local politics and take on responsibilities.  "When my subsidies are cut because the local population has decreased, am I to sacrifice the library or the sewage works?" he asked, pointing out that young elected representatives must tackle these real issues of everyday life very early on. His team, also very young, had to deal with matters relating to schools or health care for the elderly and this gave them an overview of society that was indispensable in politics.

During the debate, Rosie, a young English girl also involved in local projects, deplored the attitude of certain adult local politicians towards proposals made by young people: "We present a project to them, they tell us that it is poorly prepared and reject it… and then proceed to take it over and set it up under their own name", a depressing reality that "we also sadly encountered in Lewisham", replied Jacob Sakil. And yet, concluded Tatiana, a young Ukrainian, young people are ready to mobilise their efforts to move things forward, as they are currently doing in Ukraine and other countries, so it is quite logical that the doors of the town hall should be wider open to young people than they are today.