Do Local Government Reforms Result in Higher Levels of Trust in Local Politicians?

Abstract

Local government reforms have been carried out in a number of European countries, aiming at both more effective service production and increased citizen participation in local politics. Although extensive research has been carried out analysing the content and background of these reforms, few if any, studies have considered the democratic effects of these reforms at the level of the individual citizen. This article investigates relationship between local government reforms and citizen trust in local government, focusing on individual-level data on local government reforms in Norway in 2008. The analysis shows that it is difficult to find a clear relationship between reform policies and trust in local politicians. These findings parallel other contributions in concluding that it is difficult to find substantial effects from local government re-organisations.

Key Words:

• Local government reforms
• trust
• democracy
• New Public Management

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Jo Saglie at The Institute for Social Research, Oslo, for valuable comments to an earlier version of this article.

Notes

^1. In both ends of the spectrum we find small municipalities: Kviteseid, Nesna, Kautokeino, Tjeldsund and Andebu are represented the poorest; Leka, Dønna, Overhalla and Bindal are the best represented municipalities.

^2. We are indebted to Hovik and Stigen (2012) for the development of indexes.

^3. The purpose of this analysis is to estimate the relationship between the level of trust in local politicians and a set of explanatory variables on individual and municipality level. As our data have a hierarchical or nested data structure, we use multilevel models which are appropriate for such analyses. By multilevel models, we can analyse effects from these two levels simultaneously and include explanatory variables from municipality and individual levels.

^4. The municipality with the value 4,285 on the Herfindahl–Hirschman index is Holtålen. The municipality with the value 1,758 on the Herfindahl–Hirschman index is Vikna.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marit Reitan

Marit Reitan is a professor of political science at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include environmental policy, central–local government relations and local governance. She has published in international peer-reviewed journals including Environment and Planning C, Environmental Politics and Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

Kari Gustafsson

Kari Gustafsson is a research assistant at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Her research interests centre on local governance and administration.

Arild Blekesaune

Arild Blekesaune is a professor of quantitative methods at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His studies deal with statistical analysis within welfare sociology, rural sociology and comparative sociology. He has published several articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including the European Sociological Review, Rural Sociology, Geoforum and Sociologia Ruralis.