Size and Equal Opportunity in the Democratic Process: The Effect of the Danish Local Government Reform on Inequality in Internal Political Efficacy
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David D. Lassen
A classic issue in political science is how the size of political entities affects democracy. We argue that municipal size may affect local internal political efficacy negatively in two ways: first, as existing studies show, greater distance between citizens and politicians in large municipalities may diminish citizens’ belief in their ability to influence politics. Second, it may cause greater inequality in internal political efficacy for different social groups. We use the comprehensive Danish structural reform of 2007 to examine the latter issue in a way that solves various methodological problems associated with cross sectional analysis of size effects. It turns out that there is no unequivocal development in the inequality of different social groups’ sense of efficacy. Hence, although increased size leads to decreased internal political efficacy generally, it does not systematically increase inequality.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Sphere Effects: A History of Peter Sloterdijk's Political Architectures
- Co-Production as a Political Form
- Office Allocation in the Czech Government and Chamber of Deputies in Light of Coalition Theory
- The Impact of International Politics on Commercial Flows in the Age of Globalization
- The Electoral System as a Factor in Striking a Balance between Governmental Stability and Representation
- Non-Partisan Candidates and Lists at Slovenian Local Elections, 1994-2010
- Candidate Choice in Political Advertising: What Determines Who Gets Attention?
- Bringing the Olympic Rationality Back In? Coherence, Integration and Effectiveness of Public Policies
- Constitutional Barriers and the Privatization of Public Utilities in Rich Democracies
- Size and Equal Opportunity in the Democratic Process: The Effect of the Danish Local Government Reform on Inequality in Internal Political Efficacy
- Alterations of Voting in Lithuania's Municipal Council Elections: Macrolevel Analysis
- The Norwegian Electoral System and its Political Consequences
- The New Regional Order and Transnational Civil Society in Southeast Asia: Focusing on Alternative Regionalism from below in the Process of Building the ASEAN Community
