Does municipal amalgamation affect trust in local politicians? The case of Norway
Please note: This page may contain data in Norwegian that is not translated to English.
Author
Solvang, Øystein; Saglie, Jo; Winsvold, Marte
Year
2023
Publisher
Sage
Type of publication:
Tidsskriftsartikkel
Link to publication:
https://munin.uit.no/bitstream/handle/10037/32527/article.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
Link to review:
https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/32527
Number of pages:
17
ISSN:
0192-5121; 1460-373X
Language of publication:
Engelsk
Country of publication:
Norge, Danmark
NSD-reference:
4976
This page was last updated:
2024-07-05 11:01:02.272258
Summary
When municipalities merge, they grow and, at the same time, experience a comprehensive reform process, both of which may affect political trust. We explore whether and how the large-scale municipal amalgamation reforms in Norway in the 2010s affected citizens’ trust in local and national elected officials and assemblies. We examine the effects of both changes in size and reform processes using survey data on trust in local and national political officials and assemblies before, and at the time, of the merger. In contrast to studies conducted in Denmark, we do not find evidence that the Norwegian Local Government Reform had significant negative effects on political trust. We argue that this difference between Denmark and Norway can be explained by differences in how the two reform processes were implemented.