Stutzer, Alois and Michaela Slotwinski

Power Sharing at the Local Level: Evidence on Opting-In for Non-Citizen Voting Rights
2019

The enfranchisement of foreigners is likely one of the most controversial frontiers of insti-tutional change in developed democracies, which are experiencing an increasing number ofnon-citizen residents. We study the conditions under which citizens are willing to sharepower. To this end, we exploit the unique setting of the Swiss canton of Grisons, wheremunicipalities are free to decide on the introduction of non-citizen voting rights at the lo-cal level (a so called opting-in regime). Consistent with the power dilution hypothesis, wefind that enfranchisement is less likely the larger the share of resident foreigners. Moreover,municipalities with a large language/cultural minority are less likely to formally involve for-eigners. In contrast, municipality mergers seem to act as an institutional catalyst, promotingdemocratic reforms. A supplementary panel analysis on electoral support for an opting-inregime in the canton of Zurich also backs the power dilution hypothesis, showing that alarger share of foreigners reduces support for a regime change.