Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain

[EN In many European countries, people increasingly leave rural or small municipalities to live and work in urban or metropolitan environments. Although previous work on the ‘left behind’ places has examined the relationship between the rural–urban divide and vote choice, less is known about how dep...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sánchez García, Álvaro, Rodón, Toni, Delgado García, María
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/166726
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/166726
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Political geography
Public services
Depopulation
Far-right
Spain
5902 Ciencias Políticas
6303.01 Sociología Comparada
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repository_id_str
spelling Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in SpainSánchez García, ÁlvaroRodón, ToniDelgado García, MaríaPolitical geographyPublic servicesDepopulationFar-rightSpain5902 Ciencias Políticas6303.01 Sociología Comparada[EN In many European countries, people increasingly leave rural or small municipalities to live and work in urban or metropolitan environments. Although previous work on the ‘left behind’ places has examined the relationship between the rural–urban divide and vote choice, less is known about how depopulation affects electoral behaviour. Is there a relationship between experiencing a loss in population and support for the different parties? We investigate this question by examining the Spanish case, a country where the topic of depopulation has become a salient issue in political competition. Using a newly compiled dataset, we also explore whether the relationship between depopulation and electoral returns is moderated by municipality size, local compositional changes, the loss of public services and changes in amenities. Our findings show that depopulated municipalities give higher support to the main Conservative party, mainly in small municipalities. Yet, municipalities on the brink of disappearance are more likely to give larger support to the far-right. Results overall show that the effect of depopulation seems to be driven by compositional changes, and not as a result of losing public services or a deterioration of the vibrancy of the town. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of the relationship between internal migration and electoral behaviour.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Financiación de acceso abierto proporcionada por los Fondos Europeos FEDER y la Junta de Castilla y León en el marco de la Estrategia de Investigación e Innovación para la Especialización Inteligente (RIS3) de Castilla y León 2021-2027Wiley202520252024info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10366/166726reponame:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamancainstname:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)InglésPID2020-119465 GB-C21Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:gredos.usal.es:10366/1667262026-06-07T06:28:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
title Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
spellingShingle Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
Sánchez García, Álvaro
Political geography
Public services
Depopulation
Far-right
Spain
5902 Ciencias Políticas
6303.01 Sociología Comparada
title_short Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
title_full Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
title_fullStr Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
title_full_unstemmed Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
title_sort Where has everyone gone? Depopulation and voting behaviour in Spain
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Sánchez García, Álvaro
Rodón, Toni
Delgado García, María
author Sánchez García, Álvaro
author_facet Sánchez García, Álvaro
Rodón, Toni
Delgado García, María
author_role author
author2 Rodón, Toni
Delgado García, María
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Political geography
Public services
Depopulation
Far-right
Spain
5902 Ciencias Políticas
6303.01 Sociología Comparada
topic Political geography
Public services
Depopulation
Far-right
Spain
5902 Ciencias Políticas
6303.01 Sociología Comparada
description [EN In many European countries, people increasingly leave rural or small municipalities to live and work in urban or metropolitan environments. Although previous work on the ‘left behind’ places has examined the relationship between the rural–urban divide and vote choice, less is known about how depopulation affects electoral behaviour. Is there a relationship between experiencing a loss in population and support for the different parties? We investigate this question by examining the Spanish case, a country where the topic of depopulation has become a salient issue in political competition. Using a newly compiled dataset, we also explore whether the relationship between depopulation and electoral returns is moderated by municipality size, local compositional changes, the loss of public services and changes in amenities. Our findings show that depopulated municipalities give higher support to the main Conservative party, mainly in small municipalities. Yet, municipalities on the brink of disappearance are more likely to give larger support to the far-right. Results overall show that the effect of depopulation seems to be driven by compositional changes, and not as a result of losing public services or a deterioration of the vibrancy of the town. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of the relationship between internal migration and electoral behaviour.
publishDate 2024
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2024
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10366/166726
url http://hdl.handle.net/10366/166726
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv PID2020-119465 GB-C21
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
instname:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
instname_str Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
reponame_str GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
collection GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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