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Deciding Who's Decisive: Municipality Break-Ups and the Behavior of Local Politicians

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  • Brink , Anna

    (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)

Abstract

Swedish municipality parts aiming for secession are highly dependent on the municipal council's acceptance in order to succeed. Only four of the 25 municipality break-up verdicts passed by the central government have not been in line with the municipal council's recommendation. In nearly all cases, the recommendation seems to be based on the stated opinion in local referenda or opinion polls. However, by deciding on whether the whole municipality, or the seceding part alone should be encompassed by the referendum or opinion poll, the municipal council can affect the probability of obtaining the desired result. This paper empirically studies this decision. Two factors show to be important. If secession would result in a large reduction of the municipality's population and a decrease in its per capita tax base, the referendum or opinion poll is more likely to encompass the whole municipality. Such a referendum or opinion poll does, in turn, decrease the probability of a municipal council supporting the case, which reduces the central government's propensity to finally approve secession.

Suggested Citation

  • Brink , Anna, 2003. "Deciding Who's Decisive: Municipality Break-Ups and the Behavior of Local Politicians," Working Papers in Economics 104, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0104
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/2824
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alberto Alesina & Enrico Spolaore, 1997. "On the Number and Size of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1027-1056.
    2. Bolton, Patrick & Roland, Gerard & Spolaore, Enrico, 1996. "Economic theories of the break-up and integration of nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 697-705, April.
    3. Patrick Bolton & Gérard Roland, 1997. "The Breakup of Nations: A Political Economy Analysis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1057-1090.
    4. Brink , Anna, 2003. "Unequal Provision of Local Public Services under the Threat of Secession," Working Papers in Economics 103, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2002. "Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262661314, April.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    municipality break-ups; secession; referenda; municipal council;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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