Is small beautiful? Transitional and structural effects of municipal amalgamation on voter turnout in local and national elections

From preferences to policy

“…Finally, when voters also benefit from a politician's corrupt behavior, punishment is less (Fernández-Vázquez et al, 2015). The literature on size and democracy suggests that electoral size might mediate the functioning of accountability and type-selection (Dahl and Tufte, 1973;Gerring and Veenendaal, 2020;Allers et al, 2021). This is because smallness may foster favoritism and clientelism, whereas largeness may induce an indifference towards politics (Gerring and Veenendaal, 2020).…”

“…The literature on size and democracy suggests that jurisdiction size, as measured by the number of eligible voters, could be important (Dahl and Tufte, 1973;Gerring and Veenendaal, 2020;Allers et al, 2021). This literature provides two opposing arguments.…”

“…According to this argument, a small electorate would dampen the negative effect of misconduct on electoral performance. On the other hand, the literature also argues that a large electorate fosters an attitude of indifference towards politics and makes it more difficult to disseminate information (Dahl and Tufte, 1973;Gerring and Veenendaal, 2020;Allers et al, 2021). This would dampen the effect of misconduct on electoral performance.…”

“…Elections use semi-open lists. Voters primarily vote for a party and overwhelmingly choose the candidate at the top of the list but can cast a preferential vote for a specific candidate (Allers et al, 2021). Note that in this setting, voters punish parties instead of candidates.…”

“…In municipal elections, every permanent resident aged 18 or more is eligible to vote. Municipal elections are quadrennial and held on the same day in all municipalities, except for municipalities involved in an amalgamation process (Allers et al, 2021). These have off-cycle elections which are excluded from the analysis.…”