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Territorial reforms took place in several countries of Western Europe beginning with 1950 and of the Central and Eastern Europe after 1990. The theoretical premises of these reforms were those that larger local authorities will be more efficient in delivering public services to citizens, tailor made for local needs. Unfortunately, the reality proved a little much more complex; the reforms determined different administrative and economic outputs, so the ’economies of scale’ and ‘democracy’ arguments remained without a definitive answer and the debates are still dividing specialists and political leaders. The paper analyses those territorial reforms and their relevance in the context of Romanian current debates and realities. The findings from the case of other countries are compared with data of the Romanian municipalities (by municipality understanding any local administrative unit), and implication on the optimal municipal size, cost-efficiency improvements, impact on local democracy and political participation are discussed. The conclusion is that any territorial reform should be done looking to all the possible outputs (in terms of size, but also of the density of population, availability and costs of public services, decentralization and local democracy, participation in political life, protection of the ethnic minorities, etc.) and how these will affect citizens. More than that, the data regarding Romanian municipalities shows there is no evident correlation between some financial indicators and population size. This means that an up-scaling will have the impact of reducing the number of municipalities but will not change the performance of that local authorities.

We contribute to the limited knowledge of the consequences of municipal splits by estimating how break‐ups of seven Swedish municipalities affected per capita expenditures. To predict what would have happened had the break‐ups not taken place, we apply the matrix completion method with nuclear norm minimization. We find that smaller municipalities not necessarily imply higher per capita expenditures. Instead, expenditures increase in some cases, are unaffected in others, and in others, decrease. The results point to the complex nature of territorial reforms and underscore the perils of policy recommendations that take uniform outcomes of either amalgamations or break‐ups for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territorial reforms took place in several countries of Western Europe beginning with 1950 and of the Central and Eastern Europe after 1990. The theoretical premises of these reforms were those that larger local authorities will be more efficient in delivering public services to citizens, tailor made for local needs. Unfortunately, the reality proved a little much more complex; the reforms determined different administrative and economic outputs, so the 'economies of scale' and 'democracy' arguments remained without a definitive answer and the debates are still dividing specialists and political leaders. The paper analyses those territorial reforms and their relevance in the context of Romanian current debates and realities. The findings from the case of other countries are compared with data of the Romanian municipalities (by municipality understanding any local administrative unit), and implication on the optimal municipal size, cost-efficiency improvements, impact on local democracy and political participation are discussed. The conclusion is that any territorial reform should be done looking to all the possible outputs (in terms of size, but also of the density of population, availability and costs of public services, decentralization and local democracy, participation in political life, protection of the ethnic minorities, etc.) and how these will affect citizens. More than that, the data regarding Romanian municipalities shows there is no evident correlation between some financial indicators and population size. This means that an up-scaling will have the impact of reducing the number of municipalities but will not change the performance of that local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this study is the political trust implications of territorial reforms, approaches to territorial reform, and the effects of the mobilisation of political-territorial collective identities. We focus on the political trust effects of political-territorial mobilisation grounded on territorial reforms, and of voluntary and forced structural reforms. The case examined is that of Norway, a country characterised by high levels of trust before a recent county reform. Utilising four survey waves from 2013 to 2019, we measure trust in national politicians both pre- and post-reform, giving us a quasi-experimental design. The findings indicate that political trust was not affected by whether the reform was forced on counties or they accepted it voluntarily. However, political trust was negatively affected by forced structural reforms in combination with regionalism, i.e., mobilisation of political-territorial collective identities. This finding provides new insight about how territorial reforms may affect political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency-driven trend towards amalgamation characterising local government reforms in Europe seems to have escaped Romania, which displays a significant increase in the number of local governments post-1989. This is the result of rural first-tier local governments splitting into smaller units. The paper examines objective factors and subjective motivations that have shaped the behaviour of both national and local actors in dealing with territorial reform. First, it explores the rationale and rationality of a central government initiative to facilitate municipal splits against a set of criteria derived from the literature. Second, it examines the municipal splits occurring between 1991 and 2018 against alternative or concurring explanations developed in the literature based on economic, socio-cultural and political elements. The paper argues that in the highly charged political context of the post-communist countries it is reasonable to expect a dominance of subjective rather than objective factors in decision-making on territorial reform.

The article discusses municipal boundary changes in Central and Eastern Europe, concentrating on the heavily under-researched phenomenon of municipal splits. The first part describes the basic facts of municipal secessions in the region analysed. The second part presents a model explaining the national and municipal level factors behind the variation in the occurrence of successful split initiatives. It distinguishes between national institutional settings, economic, identity (cultural) and local political factors.

Shaping the administrative division of the country is influenced by various factors. Based on the analysis of 22 municipal divorces in Poland between 1995 and 2019 the article attempts to identify the determinant factors of these splits. The article examines environmental (economic or cultural) and political factors which may stimulate the fragmentation initiatives. The results indicate that in Poland cultural factors appear to be at least as important as economic ones. An argument of great significance in the process of a new municipality creation (both in the case of successful and unsuccessful splits) was the memory of the inhabitants about the time when they were operating as a separate municipality. In case of rural municipalities the existence of a second almost equally important population centre in the municipality was an important factor contributing to the municipal splits.

In the postmodern era, European political philosophy has introduced several concepts. These concepts have ideologically prepared Western countries for decentralization reform. Being still "in process", reflection on the proper structure of postmodern society is marked by ambiguous and often contradictory ideas. The very view on the state as a de-hierarchical, rhizomorphic and horizontal phenomenon presupposes numerous ways of reforming it. Throughout their histories, European countries have shifted from confrontations, hostilities and rivalries towards new mechanisms of fruitful relationships between civil society and state institutions. Nowadays, many aspects are influencing the elaboration and implementation of strategies on civil society development in different countries. These aspects include the following: different starting conditions; the presence or absence of basic principles of public space development; the possibility of fulfilling civic practices' potential; the level of political participation. West European countries have managed to create a viable structure to support the development of civil society, as well as maintain a stable dialogue between it and the state. However, the process is still on: effective practices of interaction between them are being developed; conditions for more effective cooperation are being improved; new financial instruments are being created and implemented. All Central and East European countries have a common understanding of civil society as one of the most important actors in developing cooperation with the government. At the same time, they should be able to solve existing essential problems, such as low awareness about global development problems and the population's unreadiness to meet the immediate objectives of civil society development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territorial-administrative organization belongs to the most important and highly debated topics of political geography. The paper focuses on boundary changes on a municipal level. Territorial amalgamation reforms have attracted a lot of attention of scholars from different disciplines, recently resulting also in meta-analyses of studies of impacts of those reforms. But the opposite process – of territorial fragmentation (splits or “divorces” of municipalities) has not attracted sufficient attention of academic community. And in the practice of Central and Eastern Europe this type of reforms has been at least equally frequent and equally important as territorial consolidation reforms. Immediately after 1989/1990 turn-over we could note massive territorial fragmentation in several countries of former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and some others. But also more recently, within last 20 years there have been several cases of “municipal divorces”. The paper provides inventory and draws general picture of such changes in 7 countries of the region (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) and discusses both factors beyond the divorce initiatives as well as possible consequences for local democracy and local public service provision.

Recent years have brought increasing number of publications empirically assessing outcomes of territorial reforms. This paper provides a systematic review of 31 studies from 14 countries, using quasi-experimental research designs to test the causal relationship between changes in jurisdiction size and economic outcomes. The clearly confirmed finding relates to savings in administrative spending, while other sectors do not demonstrate economies of scale. The existing studies provide strong evidence for the common pool effect in theperiod before amalgamation. In the other fields, results do not display a clear pattern. The article concludes with a discussion of gaps in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inland people's attitude towards municipal amalgamation reform in Norway from 2013 to 2018 has become more positive. However, a majority does not support the ongoing reform, but the changes have been substantial during such a short time period. However, these changes seem not to be a result of new and more positive judgements of the reforms' results and outcome. By contrast, the majority has been more critical of anticipated consequences of the amalgamation reform into larger municipalities. Instead, we considered the changes as a type of 'resignation' towards a reform pressure from the national government and general changes in their environment. More citizens' assess that positive municipal economic development and more local competence are favourable effects of mergers, and this finding supports this claim. The reform is likely to catch up with their local units anyway, and the citizens' attitudes are adapting to what they expect will occur in the upcoming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores theoretical approaches to the territorial reforms of local self-government developed by the European municipal science, as well as practical experience of the current stage of enlargement of municipalities in Germany (new federal states, especially Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Thuringia) and Russia (e.g. Moscow Region). Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the arguments of supporters and opponents of enlargement, the economic, social, managerial and political effects of this process. On the basis of modern research, it is concluded that the claim of saving of budget resources as a result of consolidation of municipalities is untenable, much like the claim of a number of negative consequences from the point of view of local democracy. At the same time, negative demographic trends require enlargements of municipalities in sparsely populated areas. The article also contains a number of practical conclusions and recommendations

The article analyzes the reforms carried out over the last five years in the territorial architecture of the French Republic in order to strengthen the regions and provide them with a critical size similar to those of their counterparts in other European states, as well as to transfer various competences that belonged earlier to the departments. The problem of extreme municipal fragmentation in France is also examined, and the way to deal with it is through the strengthening of intermunicipal cooperation formulas and the establishment of a special statute for large cities. For a full understanding of the meaning and scope of all these reforms the article also contains an exposition of the origin and evolution of the French decentralization system.

Territorial-administrative organization belongs to the most important and highly debated topics of political geography. The paper focuses on boundary changes on a municipal level. Territorial amalgamation reforms have attracted a lot of attention of scholars from different disciplines, recently resulting also in meta-analyses of studies of impacts of those reforms. But the opposite process - of territorial fragmentation (splits or "divorces" of municipalities) has not attracted sufficient attention of academic community. And in the practice of Central and Eastern Europe this type of reforms has been at least equally frequent and equally important as territorial consolidation reforms. Immediately after 1989/1990 turn-over we could note massive territorial fragmentation in several countries of former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and some others. But also more recently, within last 20 years there have been several cases of "municipal divorces". The paper provides inventory and draws general picture of such changes in 7 countries of the region (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) and discusses both factors beyond the divorce initiatives as well as possible consequences for local democracy and local public service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explores the problem of territorial reorganization of the metropolitan area within the Canadian evolutionary federal system, taking as an example the cities of Toronto and Montreal. The results of the research indicate that adaptation strategies, applied by states aiming at empowering the metropolis, depend on the general level of the territorial units’ autonomy. The existence of strong local self-government favours creation of intercommunal cooperation structures without dissolution of current local territorial units. Territorial reorganization in the case of states with a low level of local autonomy may facilitate elimination of former local units by theirs amalgamation in new, larger metropolitan self-government structures. As far as this context is concerned, Canada constitutes a very interesting study case. Taking into consideration Canadian evolutionary federal system, highly limited local autonomy of the cities, and its mix of European and American traditions, one can observe almost all the above-mentioned dimensions of reform and adaptation strategies. Advanced and institutionalized intercommunal cooperation, developed in Toronto and Montreal in the middle of the 20th century, was interrupted by amalgamation imposed by provincial government, which resulted in creation of new, enlarged metropolitan cities of Toronto in 1998 and Montreal in 2002. In both cases the amalgamation has not been accepted by a part of the population and destabilized cooperation in these metropolitan areas. The trouble with amalgamation led to abandonment of further structural and territorial reforms, which were replaced by functional ones, taking the form of special agreements between Toronto and Montreal and their respective provinces (Ontario and Quebec), giving them both new competences and financial resources. Regardless of any difficulties in pursuing an appropriate metropolitan regime and the suitable position for the metropolis in the structure of a political and territorial system, both cities have achieved strong economic performance and high quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Research background: The globalization processes are not only of an economic and cultural nature - but they also unify trends in the organization and management of administration, including at the local level. The idea of economization of administration was promoted in the broad stream of reforms described as New Public Management. It was often expressed as a postulate of the territorial reorganization of local governments. The reforms of these structures, motivated by the economies of scale, were to lead to the elimination of their allegedly too fragmented nature. Purpose of the article: The questions about the global scale and effectiveness of these reforms resulted in the objectives of the study, which were formulated as follows: - identification of the scope and scale of territorial reforms and assessment of their global character; - evaluation of the real impact of these reforms in terms of economies of scale. Methods: Methodologically, the work is the critical meta-analysis of the research results of consolidation reforms from many countries of the world. Findings & Value added: The results lead to the conclusion that consolidation is a global trend. However, they do not unequivocally confirm the successes in achieving economies of scale in the provision of public services. The added value of this research is to draw attention to the fact that uncritical implementation of global trends does not automatically bring the assumed effects. It is necessary to apply in practice glocalization, i.e. critical adaptation of global solutions to local institutional conditions.

This paper examines the change of interregional migration following municipal amalgamations. Interregional migrations are mostly triggered by differentials in household utilities, local economic conditions, amenities and the like. Thus, it is reasonable to believe that if an amalgamation of municipalities leads to a better service or lower local taxes in a community, it would attract new inhabitants and thus, increase the net-migration - as suggested by Tiebout (1956). A macro panel data set from Iceland was used that represents several essential variables of the housing market for 79 municipalities in Iceland during the period from 1993 to 2006. The results returned mixed effects on net migration. The amalgamations seem to have had both negative and positive effects on net-migration due to the differences in the number of municipalities in each merger and the similarities in the population sizes of the previous municipalities that joined each merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the content of local autonomy, congruent trends could be identified in European countries. Fundamental values of local self-governance prevailing in Europe are included in the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Having regard to the constitutional principle of separation of powers, Charter takes into consideration local self-governments as part of the executive power. Even though the basic principles specify the political and institutional framework of territorial and local administration, the intergovernmental relations also show changing nature. The public administration systems of the Member States of the European Union do not fall within the scope of the EU law, nevertheless, should be analyzed to what extent these processes are in#uenced by Europeanization progress and what other factors may occur. Remarkable territorial and competence-theory changes were implemented in some States recently, like the Big Society concept in the United Kingdom and the territorial reforms in France.

Copyright of Moderne Staat is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the evolution of debates about territorial reforms in Romania in the first two decades after the fall of Communism. It suggests that the debate was shaped mainly by the choices made by political elites in positioning their parties in relation to ‘post-Communism’ and the ‘Hungarian issue’. Critically, territorial reform rapidly ceased to be a tradable political asset in coalition building for the Democratic Union of Hungarians (UDMR). In recent years debate about territorial reforms has been influenced more heavily by exogenous factors (notably the desire to gain accession to the EU).

Copyright of African Studies Review is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main objective of this manuscript is to test two competing hypotheses from the regionalism/localism literature regarding local government size. The Leviathan hypothesis argues that fragmentation induces lower spending through more decentralised government structures which are smaller relative to the size of the local economy. This argument is in sharp opposition with the supporters of regionalism who argue that territorial centralisation can produce economies of scale and significant cost savings, reduce overlaps and promote a more efficient local government. These competing hypotheses derived from the literature are tested using data collected from all 278 local governments of continental Portugal. We measure local government size as both per capita total expenditures and per capita grant transfers to sub-city governments and territorial fragmentation as the number of sub-city governments per 1,000 individuals. Our findings indicate that higher levels of sub-city fragmentation lead to increased municipal government spending and transfers to sub-city governments, thus suggesting that the amalgamation of sub-city governments required by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2011 by the Portuguese government, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank and mandated by national legislation has the potential to induce cost savings and to improve financial sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Territorial fragmentation is considered as one of the most problematic characteristics of the Czech municipal system, however, there are no effective ways how to encourage small units to amalgamate. This paper focuses on cases of voluntary mergers that occured in 2002 and 2003, as the number of amalgamated units had no comparison in last 20 years. Through the analysis of documents, data from statistical office, press and interviews with actors we examine the aspect of those mergers such as main causes, process of the merger itself and actors involved. The analysis reveals the amalgamation was not a result of long-term process but more likely an ad hoc solution of problematic situation caused by administrative, economic and socio-demographic factors. This paper was supported by PRVOUK Project No. 17 - Vědy o společnosti, politice a médiích ve výzvách doby [Sciences of Society, Politics, and Media under the Challenge of the Times], Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Française d'Administration Publique is the property of Direction de l'Information Legale et Administrative and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the evolution of debates about territorial reforms in Romania in the first two decades after the fall of Communism. It suggests that the debate was shaped mainly by the choices made by political elites in positioning their parties in relation to 'post- Communism' and the 'Hungarian issue'. Critically, territorial reform rapidly ceased to be a tradable political asset in coalition building for the Democratic Union of Hungarians (UDMR). In recent years debate about territorial reforms has been influenced more heavily by exogenous factors (notably the desire to gain accession to the EU). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]