Powerlessness at the inhuman scale? Examining the relationship between municipality size and political efficacy in two Australian states

A nation’s political culture, tradition goes, is built at the local level. Local government’s proximity, simplicity, and human scale enable a wider range of people to participate and to learn the civic ropes. Yet, with large-scale programmes of forced municipal amalgamation being a significant feature of many central (or state) governments’ structural reform agendas, it is necessary to consider whether the shift to larger, less human-sized municipalities may impact this formative function. Drawing on a survey of citizens from two Australian states, this study examines the relationship between municipality size and two of the most important indicators of civic culture and empowered citizenship: internal and external political efficacy. The findings indicate that municipality size does indeed have a negative effect on levels of internal political efficacy in the Australian context, leading to an increased sense of political powerlessness in larger municipalities. However, contrary to international studies, no significant size effect was detected on levels of external political efficacy, indicating that size does not tend to impact citizens’ perception of their councils’ responsiveness in this context. Several reasons for this divergent result are posited, including the constrained level of autonomy that is characteristic of Australian local government.