Vertical Consolidation and Voter Turnout: Evidence from England

Local government amalgamations are often assumed to weaken political participation because of the disconnect between larger units of government and the local citizens that they serve (McDonnell, 2020). However, some theorists suggest that more intense political competition in larger governments increases voter awareness and mobilization (Denters et al., 2014). These mobilization effects may be especially important when multiple tiers of local government are consolidated into a single tier of local government and the allocation of local public service responsibilities becomes more concentrated (Dafflon, 1992). Nevertheless, although there is growing evidence on horizontal local government amalgamations and voter turnout (Rodrigues and Tavares, 2020), to date, there has been little analysis of whether vertical consolidation reforms affect political participation. Using a quasi-experimental synthetic difference-in-differences approach, this paper analyses voter turnout across 12 election cycles (1973-2017) in five two-tier counties in England that were consolidated into single tier unitary authorities in 2009. The results suggests that voter turnout increased in consolidated counties, but that the number of candidates per seat and the degree of national party competition declined. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. References Dafflon, B. 1992. The assignment of functions to decentralized government: from theory to practice. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 10: 283-298 Denters, B., Goldsmith, M., Ladner, A., Mouritzen, P.E. and Rose, L.E. 2014. Size and Local Democracy. Edward Elgar Publishing. McDonnell, J. 2020. Municipality size, political efficacy and political participation: a systematic review. Local Government Studies, 46: 331-350. Rodrigues, M. and Tavares, A.F. 2020. The effects of amalgamations on voter turnout: Evidence from sub-municipal governments in Portugal. Cities, 101: p.102685.