After the Merger: Do Citizens Want Participation?

Democratic innovations have flourished at the local level to complement the traditional representative structures. This is at least partly spurred by low levels of citizen electoral turnout compared to the national levels in several established democracies threatening the democratic legitimacy of local political decision-making. This problem becomes even more topical with on-going nationwide reforms of local government structures merging smaller municipalities into bigger units. This creates a perceived need for enhancing the democratic legitimacy by complementing the representative democratic structures. By introducing new ways for citizens to participate in the political decision-making the political legitimacy of the political decisions should be increased. The democratic innovations introduced include for example direct democracy in the form of popular referendums, various forms of e-democracy, and possibilities for debating policy proposals with elected officials and other citizens. Previous research has examined the differences between these innovations and how participants experience them. However, there is a lack of research examining whether these democratic innovations actually help create greater political legitimacy. In other words, can democratic innovations help create a functioning political unit with solid democratic legitimacy, even in time of turbulence? And if so, what forms of involvement do citizens prefer? We examine this research question by means of a survey containing 2000 respondents in 14 municipalities in the South-West of Finland. The data was compiled during the autumn 2012 at a time when the prospect of municipal mergers was a central topic in the public debate. Examining the views on the use of democratic innovations in a new amalgamated municipality allows us to examine perceptions of democratic innovations in a specific situation rather than more general views that have been the topic for previous research. We can therefore examine whether using various democratic innovations may help sustain new political entities at the local level.