How Does Municipality Amalgamation Reduce Voter Turnout? The Case of Norway

• In Event: European Politics and Society Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

The literature on local voter turnout has identified a mostly negative effect after municipal amalgamation, yet it could not agree on the underlying causal mechanism. I argue that the reduction effect takes place due to a sudden loss of a sense of community among citizens in merged municipalities. Taking advantage of a unique situation where the municipal elections coincided with the local government reforms in Norway in 2015 and 2019, I examine how citizens living in amalgamated municipalities were less likely to vote in the municipal election. Analyzing the municipal-level data with a difference-in-difference (DID) design, I replicated the negative effect identified in the literature. I then examine the underlying causal mechanism using individual-level data from the Norwegian Citizens’ Panel. I found that citizens who are most attached to their old municipality are much less likely to vote following amalgamation. Yet this effect is not permanent: as citizens rebuild their network and get to know the new local elites, that sense of community can be rebuilt, thus the reduction effect on local voter turnout dissipates over time.

Author

• Hei Yin Chan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill