Population and Politics
The Impact of Scale

Analyzes scale effects across a range of political dimensions, encompassing different political levels using a multi-method approach.

John Gerring (Author), Wouter Veenendaal (Author)

9781108494137, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 May 2020

508 pages, 61 b/w illus. 60 tables
23.4 x 15.6 x 3 cm, 0.83 kg

'… a big book on the association between population size and a wide range of political outcomes.' Michael Laver, Department of Philosophy

Every country, every subnational government, and every district has a designated population, and this has a bearing on politics in ways most citizens and policymakers are barely aware of. Population and Politics provides a comprehensive evaluation of the political implications stemming from the size of a political unit – on social cohesion, the number of representatives, overall representativeness, particularism ('pork'), citizen engagement and participation, political trust, electoral contestation, leadership succession, professionalism in government, power concentration in the central apparatus of the state, government intervention, civil conflict, and overall political power. A multimethod approach combines field research in small states and islands with cross-country and within-country data analysis. Population and Politics will be of interest to academics, policymakers, and anyone concerned with decentralization and multilevel governance.

Part I. Framework 1
1. Scaling the Political World
2 Approaches
Part II. Scale Effects
3 Cohesion
4 Representatives
5 Representativeness
6 Particularism
7. Participation
8. Contestation
9. Institutionalized Succession
10. Professionalism
11. Concentration
12, Intervention
13.Power
14. Civil Conflict
15. Other Outcomes
Part III. Conclusions
16. How Scale Matters.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Regional studies [GTB], Research methods: general [GPS], Data analysis: general [GPH]