Skip to main content

Politics of Municipal Consolidation

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Municipal amalgamation; Municipal merger; Organizational change; Structural change

Definition

Municipal consolidation refers to reducing the number of municipalities and increasing their scale in terms of geography and population by combining two or more municipalities.

Introduction

This section explains municipal consolidation (In this paper, the words “municipal consolidation”, “merger”, and “amalgamation” are used interchangeably). Municipal consolidations have been widely used as a tool for administrative reform at the municipal level in developed countries. Consolidation means “[t]he action or process of combining a number of things into a single more effective or coherent whole” (Oxford University Press 2016). Municipal consolidation refers to reducing the number of municipalities and increasing their scale in terms of geography and population by combining two or more municipalities. Municipal consolidations have been planned or implemented with the hope of increasing...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allers MA, Geertsema JB (2014) The effects of local government amalgamation on public spending and service levels: evidence from 15 years of municipal boundary reform. University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

    Google Scholar 

  • André C, García C (2014) Local public finances and municipal reform in Finland

    Google Scholar 

  • Avellaneda CN (2009) Municipal performance: does mayoral quality matter? J Public Adm Res Theory 19(2):285–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blom-Hansen J (2010) Municipal amalgamations and common pool problems: the Danish local government reform in 2007. Scand Polit Stud 33(1):51–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blom-Hansen J, Houlberg K, Serritzlew S (2014) Size, democracy, and the economic costs of running the political system. Am J Polit Sci 58(4):790–803

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahl RA, Tufte ER (1973) Size and democracy (Vol. 2). Stanford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Denhardt RB, Denhardt JV, Aristigueta MP (2015) Managing human behavior in public and nonprofit organizations. Sage Publications

    Google Scholar 

  • Dollery B, Byrnes J, Crase L (2007) Is bigger better? Local government amalgamation and the South Australian rising to the challenge inquiry. Econ Anal Policy 37(1):1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards MM (2008).Understanding the complexities of annexation. J Plan Lit

    Google Scholar 

  • Feiock RC, Carr JB (2000) Private incentives and academic entrepreneurship: the promotion of city-county consolidation. Publ Adm Q 223–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox WF, Gurley-Calvez T (2006) Will consolidation improve sub-national governments? World Bank policy research working paper (3913)

    Google Scholar 

  • Geoffrey B, Buchanan JM (1980) The power to tax: analytical foundations of a fiscal constitution. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman CB (2015) Local government fragmentation and the local public sector a panel data analysis. Publ Finance Rev 43(1):82–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanes N (2015) Amalgamation impacts on local public expenditures in Sweden. Local Gov Stud 41(1):63–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanes N, Wikström M (2010) Amalgamation impacts on local growth: are voluntary municipal amalgamations more efficient than compulsory amalgamations. Can J Reg Sci (online) 33(1):57–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen SW (2015) The democratic costs of size: how increasing size affects citizen satisfaction with local government. Polit Stud 63(2):373–389

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kjaer U, Hjelmar U, Leth Olsen A (2010) Municipal amalgamations and the democratic functioning of local councils: the case of the Danish 2007 structural reform. Local Gov Stud 36(4):569–585

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen CA (2002) Municipal size and democracy: a critical analysis of the argument of proximity based on the case of Denmark. Scand Polit Stud 25(4):317–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leland S, Thurmaier K (2005) When efficiency is unbelievable: normative lessons from 30 years of city-county consolidations. Publ Adm Rev 475–489

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2014) Numbers of local governments and Meiji and Showa Great Merger [Shichouson Suu no Hensen to Meiji Showa no Daigappei no Rokucho]. Retrieved from http://www.soumu.go.jp/gapei/gapei2.html

  • New Zealand Parliament (2014) Local government amalgamation. Retrieved from https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/00PLLawC51141/b0d1ac49e8cb7b90f3d7d063c3bf9afd461e4722

  • OECD (2014) OECD regional outlook 2014 regions and cities: where policies and people meet. OECD Publishing, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Oxford University Press (2016) Oxford dictionaries. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

  • Reingewertz Y (2012) Do municipal amalgamations work? Evidence from municipalities in Israel. J Urban Econ 72(2):240–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steiner R, Kaiser C (2016) Effects of amalgamations: evidence from Swiss municipalities. Publ Manag Rev 1–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Vojnovic I (2000) The transitional impacts of municipal consolidations. J Urban Aff 22(4):385–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yokomichi K (2007) The development of municipal mergers in Japan. National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kohei Suzuki .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Suzuki, K. (2016). Politics of Municipal Consolidation. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2454-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2454-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics