The Effect of Country Size on Political Representation

This project focuses on the electoral and partisan effects of country size from a Political Sciecne perspecctive. The assumption of existing research that preferences for public goods that vary across a country automatically translate into different partisan or electoral preferences. I argue the causal mechanism that explains the political effects of country size is the interaction between the higher costs of communication in large countries and the technological development that reduces or makes such costs disappear. Instead of the heterogeneity in preferences over public goods, the dependent variable is the heterogeneity in electoral results across the country. The heterogeneity in the electoral results increases the larger a country is and when its technological development (of communications) is limited. The reason is that voters and local politicains who are far away from the capital citywill be poorly informed about the decions of the incumbent. In other words, the larger a country and the less technological development, the greater the territorial heterogeneity in political information. The effect of the size of the country will be greater before the appearance of the mass media (radio and television) and social networks. In the early days of democracies, electoral campaigns consisted of exchanges between candidates and (the few) voters. When the mass media appear, economies of scale emerge in electoral campaigns and all the districts of a country are easily and equally accessible.

This research embraces goal 16.6 focused on creating effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. In particular, it examines to what extent the provision of public goods by the State is unequal throughout the territory of a country and in different historical periods depending on the geographical distance to the capital city. The interest lies in explaining how political similarities between territories are produced and encouraged. The consequence os that demands for similar public goods are generated within the country and economies of scale work. Governments and politicians do not privilege the territories in which they achieve better electoral results when making decisions.

The project is expected to have an impact on three levels. First, in academic terms, two free access databases will be created that will allow the project to have a multiplier effect. In addition, two articles will be written for international journals with a high level of impact. From a political point of view, the project will make it possible to make recommendations on how elections should be organized in large countries in order to achieve greater nationalization or less variation in the levels of electoral participation within the country. Finally, through social networks and the written press, the findings of the project will be shared with the public.