Local government structure and public expenditures

The "Law of 1/n" postulates a positive relationship between the number of democratically elected representative districts and government spending. Strong support for this relationship exists in legislatures in the United States (at both the state and national level) and across countries. Few studies have examined this relationship at the local level despite the fact that local governments operate under constraints similar to those faced by representative legislatures. Using a sample of Georgia counties we find the number of county commissioners to be positively correlated with county government expenditures, indicating support for the Law of 1/n at the local level.