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11 - Concentration

from Part II - Scale Effects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2020

John Gerring
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Wouter Veenendaal
Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden
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Summary

In some polities the exercise of political power is highly concentrated, and in others it is widely dispersed. In Chapter 11, we examine the effects of scale on power concentration, arguing that the degree of horizontal and vertical concentration of power in a polity is affected by the number of people residing within that polity. The larger the polity, the more fragmented its institutional design is likely to be. This is a function of (1) increased heterogeneity, which entails that larger communities are difficult to govern in a concentrated fashion, and (2) lower levels of trust, which call for institutional constraints on the center that cannot be easily overcome. To tackle this vast subject we adopt a variety of country-level indicators of power concentration including subnational regions, federalism, bicameralism, revenue decentralization, capital city size, and checks and balances. We also probe a variety of subnational indicators focused on variation across states and localities within the United States. Most of these analyses support the contention that scale is associated with deconcentrated power.

Type
Chapter
Information
Population and Politics
The Impact of Scale
, pp. 249 - 272
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Concentration
  • John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Wouter Veenendaal, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Population and Politics
  • Online publication: 14 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108657099.012
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  • Concentration
  • John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Wouter Veenendaal, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Population and Politics
  • Online publication: 14 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108657099.012
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Concentration
  • John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Wouter Veenendaal, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Population and Politics
  • Online publication: 14 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108657099.012
Available formats
×