The Economic and Political Impacts of Top-Down Territorial Reforms: The Case of Sub-City Governments

Size, density and small scale elections: A multi-level analysis of voter turnout in sub-municipal governments

“…Prior empirical work conducted in the Portuguese setting showed that highly fragmented municipalities are associated with both higher expenditures and larger grants to sub-municipal governments (Tavares and Rodrigues 2015). In contrast, the analysis presented here suggests that excessive sub-municipal fragmentation does not seem to have negative consequences for electoral participation.…”

“…These studies have been conducted at the municipal level, often ignoring the fact that, in many countries, municipalities are themselves divided into sub-municipal governments that are elected. Recent contributions attempt to mitigate the paucity of research on sub-municipal governments (Swianiewicz, 2014;Tavares and Rodrigues 2015;Hlepas et al 2018) but fail to explain how these systems might affect political participation in general and voter turnout at the sub-municipal unit (SMU) level in particular.…”

So Close, Yet so Far Away? the Effects of City Size, Density and Growth on Local Civic Participation

“…The number of parishes in each municipality is expected to be positively associated with civic participation. Parishes operate as breeding grounds of political and civic skills and act as channels that allow citizens to express their views, consult with officials and achieve full participatory status, even more so than in the case of municipal government (Tavares, Rodrigues, Magalhes, & Carr, 2012). Dummy variables are also used to indicate the 18 cities that are district capitals and for the cities belonging to the two metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto.…”

The effects of amalgamations on voter turnout: Evidence from sub-municipal governments in Portugal

“…The MoU required a territorial reform of Portugal's local government system, which at the time was structured in two tiers, including 308 municipalities and 4251 civil parishes (SMUs). The main argument present in the MoU was that excessive territorial fragmentation caused economic inefficiencies, excessive administrative costs, and deficient service delivery (Tavares and Rodrigues, 2015). In 2013, the Portuguese national government enacted a territorial reform to merge SMUs and decided to leave untouched the territories of the municipalities.…”