Size and political support on the local level in Sweden

Does size of municipality have an impact on political support? This study investigates the connection between municipality size and political support in 55 Swedish municipalities. Three hypotheses about the connection between municipality size and political support are developed from previous research. These hypotheses claim negative, positive, and no connection between municipality size and political support. In the empirical analysis, two aspects of size (area and population) and eleven aspects of political support (five aspects of political trust, participation in parliamentary and municipal elections, political interests, party identification, and activity in associations) are included. The analysis also includes six aspects of municipality composition (age, education, ethnicity, income, labour market activity and urbanisation). When the three hypotheses are empirically tested, the analysis indicates that several aspects of political support have negative correlations with area size, while only one of the aspects has a negative correlation with population size. However, a major part of the investigated aspects has no connection with municipality size and the connections that are indicated by the analysis are only moderate in their strength.