From kilometres to detachment: examining electoral accountability in amalgamated municipalities

The article deals with voting for incumbent parties in local elections in amalgamated municipalities. We argue that the distance between settlement units within a municipality can shape voters’ accountability behaviour – potentially benefiting incumbents in peripheral areas through risk aversion, or harming them through weakened attachment to the municipality. Using exit poll data from about 5000 voters in 28 Czech municipalities and multilevel binary logistic regression, we find that voters in peripheral units are less likely to support incumbents when physical distance separates them from the built-up centre. The distance has a limited role as an information barrier but the exact mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, proximity between settlements of a municipality is an important factor for the creation of a unitary political community.