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Preface

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

Every country, every subnational government, and every electoral district has a designated population. Some are large and some are small. Yet in existing empirical work, population is usually treated as a background factor. In this preface, the present book’s focus on scale effects is outlined and motivated. By means of a brief comparison of the illustrative examples of the United States and Malta, it is argued that population size influences politics in a variety of ways. Since it is difficult to reach a determination about the role of scale for particular cases, this book examines scale effects at a general level, focusing on universal rather than particular causal effects. While a venerable tradition of political thought and scholarship suggests that scale is an obstacle to democracy and good governance, our findings suggest that scale has both positive and negative effects. The final section of the preface lays out the structure of this book, highlighting the themes discussed in each of the following chapters.

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

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  • Preface
  • John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Wouter Veenendaal, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Population and Politics
  • Online publication: 14 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108657099.001
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  • Preface
  • John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Wouter Veenendaal, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Population and Politics
  • Online publication: 14 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108657099.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

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.

  • Preface
  • John Gerring, University of Texas, Austin, Wouter Veenendaal, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Population and Politics
  • Online publication: 14 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108657099.001
Available formats
×