In my research, I test how population size influences citizen participation in politics and their relationship with politicians. I argue that a small population size fundamentally changes the social context in which citizens participate and decide which party and politician they support. In small places, politicians are not a distant, anonymous authority, but a neighbour, soccer coach or relative. Does this affect citizens’ relationship to their representatives? How does democracy work in these small communities? In which way does it differ from large places? These are the questions that my research investigates.
To answer the main research question of how population size influences citizens’ political participation, I have investigated citizens’ political participation in a small and large municipality in the Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Switzerland. Thereby, I have used a multitude of different research methods, including a large opinion survey and ethnographic fieldwork.
I find that a small population size influences the context in which citizens participate and their reasoning for supporting a candidate or party. A small population size increases personalisation. In small municipalities, personal relationships between citizens and politicians are more important than in large municipalities. Citizens support parties and candidates because of who the candidate is, rather than the politicians’ and parties’ substantive ideas and previous achievements. While these connections foster trust and accessibility, they can also create conflicts of interest. Most importantly, they limit the importance of substantive policy issues for citizens’ decisions on which candidate or party to vote for in municipal elections. In contrast, in large cities, where social networks are broader and more anonymous, voters are more influenced by party policies and ideological preferences than by personal relationships.