A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Citizens' intertemporal perspectives on municipal mergers and the role of deliberation for these




AuthorsStrandberg Kim, Leino Mikko, Lindell Marina, Christensen Henrik Serup, Setälä Maija

PublisherROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Publication year2022

JournalJournal of Contemporary European Studies

Journal name in sourceJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN STUDIES

Journal acronymJ CONTEMP EUR STUD

Number of pages15

ISSN1478-2804

eISSN1478-2790

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2022.2028132

Web address https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2022.2028132

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/174782621


Abstract

This article studies citizens' intertemporal opinions in the context of a proposed municipal merger in Finland in 2019. We ask how important citizens regard short- and long-term aspects of politics concerning the merger. Using a survey sent to a random sample of citizens (N = 320), we studied the impact of a Citizens' Jury on developing intertemporal opinions. This was done partially by tracing the development of intertemporal opinions of the jurors (N = 21) and partially through a survey experiment among the population in the municipality. The survey experiment (N = 174) analyzed the effect of reading a written statement by the Citizens' Jury on various opinions, including intertemporal opinions. The findings show that, in the initial survey, citizens valued long-term consequences more than short-term ones in the context of the merger. Similar findings were discovered among the Citizens' Jury, and reading the Citizens' Jury's statement did not produce any statistically significant differences in intertemporal opinions. However, our findings reveal that citizens' vote intentions in a forthcoming referendum on the merger are strongly associated with whether they focused on long-term costs or long-term benefits.


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