Jurisdiction Size and Local Democracy: Evidence on Internal Political Efficacy from Large-scale Municipal Reform
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Jurisdiction Size and Local Democracy : Evidence on Internal Political Efficacy from Large-scale Municipal Reform. / Lassen, David Dreyer; Serritslew, Søren.
In: American Political Science Review, Vol. 105, No. 2, 2011, p. 238-258.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Jurisdiction Size and Local Democracy
T2 - Evidence on Internal Political Efficacy from Large-scale Municipal Reform
AU - Lassen, David Dreyer
AU - Serritslew, Søren
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Optimal jurisdiction size is a cornerstone of government design. A strong tradition in political thought argues that democracy thrives in smaller jurisdictions, but existing studies of the effects of jurisdiction size, mostly cross-sectional in nature, yield ambiguous results due to sorting effects and problems of endogeneity. We focus on internal political efficacy, a psychological condition that many see as necessary for high-quality participatory democracy. We identify a quasiexperiment, a large-scale municipal reform in Denmark, which allows us to estimate a causal effect of jurisdiction size on internal political efficacy. The reform, affecting some municipalities, but not all, was implemented by the central government, and resulted in exogenous, and substantial, changes in municipal population size. Based on survey data collected before and after the reform, we find, using various difference-in-difference and matching estimators, that jurisdiction size has a causal and sizeable detrimental effect on citizens' internal political efficacy.
AB - Optimal jurisdiction size is a cornerstone of government design. A strong tradition in political thought argues that democracy thrives in smaller jurisdictions, but existing studies of the effects of jurisdiction size, mostly cross-sectional in nature, yield ambiguous results due to sorting effects and problems of endogeneity. We focus on internal political efficacy, a psychological condition that many see as necessary for high-quality participatory democracy. We identify a quasiexperiment, a large-scale municipal reform in Denmark, which allows us to estimate a causal effect of jurisdiction size on internal political efficacy. The reform, affecting some municipalities, but not all, was implemented by the central government, and resulted in exogenous, and substantial, changes in municipal population size. Based on survey data collected before and after the reform, we find, using various difference-in-difference and matching estimators, that jurisdiction size has a causal and sizeable detrimental effect on citizens' internal political efficacy.
U2 - 10.1017/S000305541100013X
DO - 10.1017/S000305541100013X
M3 - Journal article
VL - 105
SP - 238
EP - 258
JO - American Political Science Review
JF - American Political Science Review
SN - 0003-0554
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 33676631