Municipal amalgamation reforms have been advocated as ways to improve efficiency,
reduce costs, and enhance capacity in local government service provision. Research on the …

It is an old adage that local government is a training ground for democracy. Its human scale
means that political amateurs can contribute effectively and meaningfully to the politics of a …

This article addresses the efforts of local governments to involve citizens in administrative
processes. In particular, we explore the following questions: What social and political groups …

Based on a national survey of 428 local governments, we demonstrate that citizen
involvement efforts can be captured as a construct with four dimensions, including …

Every country, every subnational government, and every district has a designated
population, and this has a bearing on politics in ways most citizens and policymakers are …

In recent years, analysts have begun to study cooperation on public services among local
governments. These studies often have concluded that services with scale economies are …

Comparative urban political research offers scholars the opportunity to develop theory and
to compare practice, yet there is a need for more conscious attention to the comparative …

Do municipal amalgamations enforce or do they weaken (local) political participation? This
is an important question considering a worldwide tendency for municipalities to merge. This …

This study uses multiple measures of fragmentation and decentralization to assess the
effects of these conditions on total local spending in 126 metropolitan regions and 538 …

The book explores the claim that English local government exists in one of the most
centralised relationships with national government. Such a position fundamentally …