Voter Turnout in Merged and Non-merged Municipalities

Abstract

Considering the ideal size of a municipality, there are separate factors seeking expansion and shrinkage. Thus, the ideal size of a municipality needs to be decided while balancing contrary directions. Many studies have investigated the Heisei Merger from the perspective of the economic efficiency of size, which is considered as one of the merits of expansion. However, it is also possible for expansion to bring demerits. For example, one of the potential outcomes of a municipality expanding in size is a lower voting rate. This paper employs a descriptive method to verify the existence and extent of the demerits in the form of “lower voting rate,” which is expected to accompany expansion as a way to help the multifaceted evaluation of the Heisei Merger. As a result of the analysis, it became clear that the voting rate is declining more in merged municipalities than non-merged ones. For future studies, there is a need to conduct quantitative analyses in order to elaborately verify the validity of the results of this descriptive analysis.