How do municipal amalgamations affect turnout in local elections? Insights from the 2015 municipal reform in the Austrian state of Styria

Municipality size, political efficacy and political participation: a systematic review

“…The complexity of the political process is also thought to be lower in smaller municipalities, such that participation is less daunting and outcomes seemingly more achievable. For example, in a tight-knit community, citizens are more likely to know who to contact, reducing the information transaction costs of participation (Heinisch et al 2018), and enabling political groups to formand gain prominencemore easily (Lassen and Serritzlew 2011;Verba and Nie 1972). Importantly, given mounting efforts to improve the descriptive representation of elected offices, the simplified logistics, reduced costs and lower time demands involved in campaigning, canvassing support and serving in office should also make it more tenable for citizens to not only participate, but to run for office themselves (Bogdanor 2006).…”

Does variation in residents’ spatial mobility affect their preferences concerning local governance?

“…Politicians often regard such reforms as a remedy to improve public service delivery and the financial situation of local and superordinate tiers of government, particularly in times of financial stress. For instance, amalgamations have taken place across a wide range of countries, such as Australia (Dollery and Crase 2004), Austria (Heinisch et al 2018), Canada (Hicks 2006), Denmark (Bhatti and Hansen 2010), Finland (Hyytinen, Saarimaa, and Tukiainen 2014), Germany (Bergholz and Bischoff 2015), Japan (Shimizu 2012), Sweden (Brink 2004), and Switzerland (Koch and Rochat 2017). Thus far, research on municipal reforms has focused primarily on the effects of amalgamations (see Tavares 2018 for an overview).…”

“…The focus of this research is mainly on political and economic efficiency (Allers and Geertsema 2016;Allers and van Ommeren 2016;Blom-Hansen, Houlberg, and Serritzlew 2014;Hansen, Houlberg, and Pedersen 2014;Lassen and Serritzlew 2011;Reingewertz 2012). Other studies have looked at the political and democratic consequences of municipal reforms (Hansen 2013;Heinisch et al 2018;Hyytinen, Saarimaa, and Tukiainen 2014;Koch and Rochat 2017;Saarimaa and Tukiainen 2016;Shimizu 2012).…”

To Be Central or Peripheral? What Matters for Political Representation in Amalgamated Municipalities?

“…The research on the effects of amalgamations shows that amalgamations decrease internal political efficacy and satisfaction with local democracy (Hansen 2012, 2015; Lassen and Serritzlew 2011), electoral turnout (Heinisch et al 2018; Horiuchi, Saito, and Yamada 2015; Kraaykamp, van Dam, and Toonen 2001; Roesel 2017; Zeedan 2017), and also the democratic performance of local councils in amalgamated municipalities (Kjaer, Hjelmar, and Olsen 2010; Suzuki and Ha 2017)—for literature reviews, see Schaap and Karsten (2016) and Tavares (2018). These studies usually focus on the increase in size of the population of a new municipality and do not examine the effects on the pre-merger municipalities from which the amalgamation was composed.…”