Democratic recovery after municipal reforms: The negative effects of municipal mergers do not last

How do citizens respond when their municipalities are merged into larger jurisdictions? Previous studies have found municipal mergers to have negative effects on internal political efficacy and political trust. These results have been interpreted as a causal impact of jurisdiction size. However, effects of municipal mergers are not necessarily only permanent size-effects; they may also be transitory reform-effects. Using a comprehensive dataset of four surveys conducted from 2001 to 2021 (n=17.000), we show that the negative effects of Danish municipal mergers in 2007 were transitory. While the municipal mergers did indeed have sizable short-term negative effects on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy, subjective perceptions of being well-informed and political trust, these effects have all but vanished 14 years after the reforms. These results suggest that rather than being an effect of jurisdiction size, the negative democratic effects of municipal mergers are transitory reform effects Full list of authors (in alphabetical order): Julian Christensen, Kurt Houlberg, Ulrik Kjær, Rasmus T. Pedersen & Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen