Citizens ’ Intermunicipal Political Orientations: Evidence from Swedish City-regions

Theories of public participation, such as the civic voluntarism model, typically assume that local participation takes place in the community where one resides. However, with an increasingly mobile population, this can no longer be taken for granted. Using survey data, this study analyses citizens ’ intermunicipal political orientations in urban and suburban municipalities in seven Swedish city-regions. The civic voluntarism model turns out to be only partially applicable. In addition, it appears that having links across the urban–suburb divide—that is, working in a large urban region but dwelling in the suburbs rather than in the city—enhances one’s intermunicipal political orientation. The findings have practical implications that point to the need to reconsider how urban democracy is organised. Travelling becomes an integrated part of the urban lifestyle and commuting becomes an extension of the working day. Consequently, attachments to the local place may become more tenuous, thereby not only diluting social capital (Putnam, 2000), but also weakening the citizen’s identity and responsibility to the local community (Wellman, 1999). City-regions consist of cities with function-ally interrelated hinterlands (Parr, 2005) and are typically politically fragmented. The com-mon pattern found in much of the Wester