Municipal Consolidation Research Articles

ИННОВАЦИОННЫЕ ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ ПОДХОДЫ К УКРУПНЕНИЮ МУНИЦИПАЛЬНЫХ ОБРАЗОВАНИЙ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ СОЗДАНИЯ ЧЕРЕПОВЕЦКОГО МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОГО ОКРУГА)

The reform of local self-government in Russia, initiated in 2003, led to the creation of a large number of municipalities, a comprehensive analysis of which showed that they are heterogeneous neither in terms of socio-economic development nor in terms of their own income security. Such a territorial change did not take into account many factors, and as a result, a large number of economically and financially insolvent territories were formed. Currently, there is a tendency to reduce the number of municipalities, in this regard, studies on the possibility of implementing measures to consolidate them are relevant. As a social institution, local self-government helps to find the optimal combination of the interests of the state with the interests of the municipality. The article reveals innovative organizational and managerial approaches to the consolidation of municipalities, which consist in the application of the institutionalization of the system of managerial relations, which includes the regulatory support of the process of local self-government, the system of regulation in the field of municipal relations, SWOT analysis of the process of consolidation of municipalities, etc. The development of inter-budgetary relations actualizes the problem of including local self-government in the system of federal relations, since the delegation of authority to manage settlements allows creating a system of financial and economic interaction between different levels of authorities. The prospects, opportunities and problems of creating the Cherepovets municipal district are identified. Based on the analysis of socio-economic data of the Cherepovets district of the Vologda region, the positive aspects of creating a municipal district are justified: increasing budget revenues by stopping the payment of “negative transfer”, optimizing the management apparatus of settlement administrations, effectively solving local problems, a unified approach to tax policy, optimizing costs by centralizing purchases, etc. There are also negative aspects of the transformation of the district into a district, which include: problems with the employment of municipal service settlements, the “remoteness” of the authorities from the population, the unsettled regulatory framework at the federal level.

Model for assessing the effectiveness of rural authorities for a given financial security of the rural budget

The consolidation of municipalities of rural settlements in the Russian Federation has been revealed due to low financial security. The budgetary expenditures in rural municipalities have been analyzed; the dependence of the budgetary expenditures insufficiency for the solution of issues of local importance and stabilization of the rural population has been revealed. A model for assessing the effectiveness of the administrating authorities of rural settlements for possible adjustments of managerial influence in overcoming crisis phenomena in rural areas and involving the population in solving issues of local importance and local development has been proposed.

Consolidation of municipalities as one of the ways to improve the effectiveness of intergovernmental regulation at the sub-regional level

Consolidation of municipalities as one of the ways to improve the effectiveness of intergovernmental regulation at the sub-regional level

State and Municipal Property: Analysis of the Draft Law

The paper has analized the draft Federal Law “On State and Municipal Property” placed on the federal portal of draft normative legal acts for public hearing. The authors have presented their understanding of the need to develop and adopt the draft law in question, a retrospective into the history of the problem has been undertaken. Attention is drawn to the doctrinal position and constitutional basis of adoption of this act, as well as its inclusion into the number of strategic document, namely, “The main directions of activity of the Government of the Russian Federation for the period until 2024.” The general characteristics of the draft law are given, some comments on its provisions are made. It is concluded that the adoption of the Federal Law “On State and Municipal Property” will contribute to improving the efficiency of management and disposal of state and municipal property and consolidation of the property basis of the Russian State.

Economies of scale and Brazilian local government expenditure: evidence from the State of Paraná

ABSTRACTControversy surrounds local government reform, particularly efforts directed at reducing the number of local authorities to secure economies of scale. We examine whether economies of scale exist in local government outlays by analysing the expenditure of 398 municipalities for the Brazilian state of Paraná using a 16-year panel dataset covering the period 2002–2017. We find evidence that municipal expenditure is characterised by substantial scale economies. However, given the strong correlation between population size and population density, it is important to ascertain whether the influence of population size on municipal expenditure is due to variations in population density or not. When local government areas are divided into sub-groups based on population density, evidence of scale economies remains with the majority of councils operating below optimal size. Municipal consolidations may thus lead to lower per capita expenditure.

When Do Municipal Consolidations Reduce Government Expenditures? Evidence on the Role of Local Involvement

AbstractHigher levels of government motivate municipal consolidations as a tool to increase efficiency in the local government sector, yet research shows that consolidations typically fail to deliver the promised spending reductions. Since mergers often require significant changes to institutional structures, one explanation is that local decision makers can substantially influence the outcomes of the consolidation process. To explore this possibility, this article contrasts “encouraged but voluntary” mergers with those that were “forced” on local governments in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Results show that voluntary mergers resulted in a 10 percent decline in total per capita expenditures, but forced consolidations failed to reduce spending across the board. The policy conclusion is that decision makers considering structural reform should invest in obtaining the support and participation of local government decision makers.

Innovative approaches to the revision of the administrative-territorial structure and consolidation of municipalities in the region

Innovative approaches to the revision of the administrative-territorial structure and consolidation of municipalities in the region

福岡県飯塚市における合併後の「行政資源」の配分と住民の評価

福岡県飯塚市における合併後の「行政資源」の配分と住民の評価

When Do Municipal Consolidations Reduce Government Expenditures? Evidence on the Role of Local Involvement

Higher levels of government motivate municipal consolidations as a tool to increase efficiency in the local government sector, yet research shows consolidations typically fail to deliver the promised spending reductions. Since mergers often require significant changes to institutional structures, one potential explanation is that local decision makers can substantially influence the outcomes of the consolidations process. To explore this possibility, this paper contrasts “encouraged but voluntary” mergers with those that were “forced” on local governments in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Results show voluntary mergers resulted in a ten percent decline in total per capita expenditures, but forced consolidations failed to reduce spending across the board. The policy conclusion is decision makers considering structural reform should invest in obtaining the support and participation of local government decision makers.

Politics of Municipal Consolidation: The Case of Denizli

Municipal consolidation is one of the policies employed to overcome the problems resulting from fragmented political structure in metropolitan regions. Although this policy has technical roots in theory, such as increasing efficiency and effectiveness, it has a political background in practice because boundary changes redefine the distribution of political sources. Consequently, local political actors, in relation with national political actors especially in such countries as Turkey, where there is a strong political connection between national and local political structure due to its unitary system, attempt to shape this redefinition process to maximize their self-interest. The consolidation process, thus, becomes a power struggle between politicians. In addition, local governments are the most obvious performance arena for central governments; therefore, they are indispensable. The primary aim of this study is to show how local political actors attempt to shape this redefinition process to take full advantage of new boundaries. Local political actors attempt to join the winning side, or at least to not to be on the losing side, by taking different positions in the debate. In these matters, losing or winning covers all types of capital, including economic, political, and social. This perception of losing and winning includes not only facts but also expectations. Accordingly, all local actors attempt to redefine or strengthen their positions in the political arena.

Consolidation of municipalities in the newest time

The subject. The article is devoted to the analysis of the causes, the process, the consequencesof the enlargement of municipalities in the Russian Federation.The purpose of this paper is to show that with the initial increase in the number of municipalities,many of them turned out to be incapable of effectively addressing local issues andproviding quality services to the population. In this regard, the reverse process began – theconsolidation of municipalities. As a result, the number of municipalities, especially the rurallevel, has dramatically decreased. The enlargement of municipal formations went arbitrarily,without taking into account the infrastructural and historical unity of the unified urbansettlements.The methodology. The author uses a dialectical method, a method of analysis and synthesis,a formal legal method, a comparative legal method.Results, scope of application. 03.04.2017 Federal Law No. 62-FZ is adopted, which providesfor the transformation of municipal raions and constituent urban and rural settlements intourban districts according to a "simplified procedure", that is, with the consent of the populationexpressed by the representative body of the municipality. In parallel, under considerationin the legal department of the State Duma of the Russian Federation there is a billintroduced by deputy A.P. Markov, offering to introduce a new type of municipal formation– the rural district. In rural districts it is proposed to unite settlements in rural municipalareas. The implementation of this bill will lead to the mass elimination of rural settlements.Actually there are no accurate and exhaustive legislative provisions regulating the territorialboundaries of urban districts, forms of the transformation and abolition of municipalities;moreover, local political and economic elites persistently seek to preserve the single tiermanagement system developed over the decades. As a result of these blemishes, within administrative areas of some RF constituent entities, there are urban districts that consist of the large not urbanized territories with a poorly developed transport, social, economic infrastructure and without any common development goals. The authors conclude that the bias towards municipalities' consolidation in many RF constituent entities is justified and caused by ignoring of the vertical command relations in former areas. At the same time, they point out the need to take into account the town-planning, economic and geographical, socio-demographic factors while transforming municipal areas into urban districts, otherwise, all these transformations are fictitious and turn into revising of powers by local elites.Conclusions. The municipal legal policy of consolidation of municipal entities is aimed at liquidating the settlement level of local self-government, which directly contradicts Part 1 of Art. 131 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which establishes the implementation of local self-government by the population, first of all, at the primary, settlement level.

Examining the relationship between municipal consolidation and cost reduction: an instrumental variable approach

ABSTRACTThis study explores the cost-reduction effects of local government consolidation, using data from Japanese municipalities. We use municipal panel data from Japan for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, a data set including numerous consolidation cases. Reverse causality between consolidation decisions and size of municipal expenditure is a concern in the voluntary consolidation of local governments. An instrumental variable (IV) methodology is employed to deal with possible endogeneity associated with consolidation decisions. The main finding is that municipal current expenditure per capita increases immediately after consolidation, but then gradually declines. Because consolidation seems to increase per capita expenditure in the absence of the effect of this long-term declining trend, incorporating this trend into estimation is crucial in cost-efficiency analysis of consolidation. It is also shown that conventional panel data regressions yield biased consolidation effects, suggesting the superiority of the IV approach.

岐阜県における市町村合併に伴う森林組合の動向（原著論文）（平成21年度林業経済研究所研究奨励事業（小瀧奨励賞）助成研究）

岐阜県における市町村合併に伴う森林組合の動向（原著論文）（平成21年度林業経済研究所研究奨励事業（小瀧奨励賞）助成研究）

Internalization of externalities and local government consolidation: empirical evidence from Japan

The fact that jurisdictional consolidation overcomes externality problems in the provision of local public goods is one of the best-known benefits of consolidation in the theoretical literature. Nevertheless, previous studies provide little evidence of how public service spillover effects influence consolidation decisions. This study empirically tests the hypothesis that spillovers induce consolidation, using voting data on the consolidation of Japanese municipalities. The extent of spillovers is measured by estimating the demand function for public goods with externalities. It is found that residents of the municipalities that can internalize a large amount of public goods spillovers through municipal consolidation tend to favor consolidation. This result supports the theoretical inference that spillovers in local public goods affect utility gains from jurisdiction integration, thus serving as one of the key impetuses for boundary reform. Moreover, after controlling for the spillover effects, economies of scale, population share, differences in median income, and unconditional grants can help explain consolidation preference.

The evidence on the existence of economies Of scale in local government units

<p>The purpose of this paper is to empirically verify if the possible existence of scale economies actually supports the argument that municipal consolidation is needed in Slovenia. The major reform of local self-government in Slovenia was implemented in 1994, when the transformation of existing 58 »communal« municipalities was envisaged. From 1995 onwards, the number of municipalities increased to the current number of 212 municipalities. Consequently, the necessity to implement structural reforms of local self-government in Slovenia has been stressed. The arguments favoring municipal amalgamations stressed that country has become too fragmented and municipal amalgamation would enable the reduction of (administrative) costs, and increase efficiency as well as quality of services provided, indicating that technical aspects of local government operation are targeted. Following, technical efficiency of Slovenian municipalities is estimated with the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, in order to determine if (and which) municipalities are experiencing increasing returns to scale (i.e., scale economies). The results indicate that there is important scale efficiency component, and predominantly very small municipalities are experiencing economies of scale, but their number is relatively low. Therefore, one of the classical arguments for municipal amalgamation, achieving economies of scale, can only be applied at a limited scale. This does not imply that more extensive amalgamation is not warranted, but it demands that other arguments justifying municipal amalgamation should be presented. </p>

Development cooperation of local communities (inter-municipal cooperation – IMC) under the implementation of local government reform

The hereby article has analyzed the issue of the territorial communities’ cooperation (intermunicipal cooperation – IMC), in particular in the framework of the on-going local self-government reform in Ukraine.It is proved justification of the researches of the notion «territorial community» as an object of the public administration science. It is also defined the main characteristics of the territorial communities’ cooperation (intermunicipal cooperation – IMC), in particular taking into account the concepts of «new public management» and «good governance». It is pointed out the particularities of the current status and further IMC evolution in Ukraine. The experience of other countries in the field of local self-government reform implementation and IMC development have been studied and systematized. It has been also analyzed the possibilities of the implementation in Ukraine of the best national and international practices in this field.The main directions of further IMC development are examined in order to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. It is also noted that IMC represents an innovative tool for local sustainable development and municipal consolidation in Ukraine and other European countries.The benefit of the article is to highlight the main stages of IMC projects realization. The article also provides a deep analysis of key advantages and possible difficulties in IMC projects realization. It shows that IMC gives the opportunity for local authorities to unite their resources (financial, economic, perssonel etc.) for increasing the efficiency of their work and improving the quality of the municipal services to be provided for the citizens. Consequently, provision of the high quality services to the citizens became a main mission of all local public authorities in the framework of the implementation of the new public management and good governance standards on all levels. It reflects also the main European tendencies in the field of public administration reform which are fixed in the different documents of the international organizations and European institutions. By analysis of the current status of local self-government reform, the best national and international practices, the proposals on further IMC development in Ukraine are presented. Thus, the author proposed to set up more valuable and effective cooperation between the respective local public authorities, organization of the special training programmes in order to ensure further IMC development.

LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MOLDOVA: CURRENT STATUS AND PERSPECTIVES FOR FURTHER MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATION

Urgency of the research. The importance of studying the different aspects of local economic development (LED) is explained by the fact that LED is defined as a key element for ensuring further municipal consolidation. The experience of the Republic of Moldova could be also used in Ukraine, in particular in the framework of the local self-government reform implementation. Target setting. It is reasonable to study the different aspects of local economic development (LED) in Republic of Moldova, to highlight its current status and perspectives for its further evolution in order to give reasons for the possibilities of its implementation in Ukraine and ensuring municipal consolidation. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The scientific works of such Ukrainian and foreign researchers and scientists as R. Herzog, G. Marcou, N. Mikula, O. Morozov, M. Pukhtynskiy, O. Povajniy, O. Romanuk and others deal with the different aspects of local economic development in different European countries, in particular in the Republic of Moldova. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The experience of the Republic of Moldova in the field of local economic development (LED) is not yet sufficiently highlighted in Ukraine. In this regard, the scientists have to develop the argumentation of more active using of the different forms of LED for ensuring further municipal consolidation and local self-government reform implementation. The research objective. The article aims to highlight the current status and the perspectives of local economic development in the Republic of Moldova, in particular in the frame-work of local self-government reform implementation. The statement of basic materials. The article proves the expediency of using the different forms of local economic development (LED) for ensuring municipal consolidation and successful realisation of local self-government reform. The special attention is paid to the analysis of the new legislation of the Republic Moldova in the field of decentralisation and LED, fulfilment by the National Government of its commit-ments as well as the international organisations’ recommendations on local self-government development and fiscal decentralisation. The author also prepared the detailed recommendations on further realisation of the decentralisation policy and local economic development in this country. Conclusions. Local economic development represents an integrative part of the local self-government reform in all European countries, including Moldova. Taking into account the successful realization of the decentralization policy in the Republic Moldova, the experience of this neighbor country will be useful for ensuring municipal consolidation and local self-government reform implementation in Ukraine.

TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES’ COOPERATION (INTERMUNICIPAL COOPERATION – IMC) AS AN INNOVATIVE TOOL FOR ENSURING LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATION

Urgency of the research. The importance of studying the different aspects of the development of the territorial communities’ cooperation (intermunicipal cooperation - IMC) is explained by the fact that IMC is defined as a priority of local self-government reform in Ukraine. It is also used by the different European countries as an innovative tool for ensuring local economic growth and sustainable development. Target setting. It is reasonable to study the different aspects of IMC development (institutional, legal, financial etc.) and to highlight the best IMC practices in order to give reasons for the possibilities of its implementation in Ukraine and ensuring municipal consolidation. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. The scientific works of such scholars as V. Kniazev, N. Kostina, V. Kuybida, N. Mikula, N. Nyjnyk, M. Pukhtynskiy, T. Pakhomova, O. Povajniy, S. Romanuk, A. Tkachuk and others deal with the different aspects of IMC development. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The scientists have not yet sufficiently developed the argumentation of more active using of IMC different forms in the framework of the implementation of local self-government reform in Ukraine. The research objective. The article aims to highlight the current status and the new approaches for IMC development in the framework of the implementation of the decentralization reform in Ukraine. The statement of basic materials. The article proves the expediency of using IMC as an innovative tool for ensuring sustainable local development. The special attention is paid to the analysis of the new legislation on territorial communities’ cooperation as well as the activity of the main institutions on all levels. The author provided a deep analysis of the best international and national practices in the field of IMC as well as prepared the relevant recommendations for >its further development. Conclusions. IMC represents an integrative part of the local self-government reform in Ukraine. Taking into account the successful implementation of the pilot projects (in particular, in Poltava region), IMC could be used for further municipal consolidation and local economic development.

The size of political jurisdictions: A model with some evidence from a fascist consolidation

We present a model that explains how population movements reflect the welfare properties of local jurisdiction size. Then, we use the consolidation of municipalities brought about by the fascist dictatorship in Italy during the 1920s to provide some suggestive evidence on theory's predictions. Our empirical findings hint that the consolidation was associated with net welfare gains for the communities involved.

Civic Borders and Imagined Communities: Continuity and Change in Scotland’s Municipal Boundaries, Jurisdictions and Structures—from 19th-Century “General Police” to 21st-Century “Community Empowerment”

The roles and status of Scotland’s municipalities are perennially contested and contingent, but contributed disproportionately to national identity in the “stateless nation” of 1707–1999 (McCrone, 1992; McGarvey, 2014). This article considers Scottish municipal development over time, using Benedict Anderson’s “imagined community”, “simultaneity”, and the approach of historical institutionalism (1983: passim). It traces the emergence of modern municipal structures in the nineteenth-century under successive “General Police” Acts, informed by the ethos of local self-government. It next examines the role of community identity versus community of interest in municipal consolidations and boundary disputes, as the ideological winds shifted towards municipal socialism, progressivism and economies of scale. The analysis turns to twentieth-century local government reorganisations, as UK governments of different political hues grappled with questions of subsidiarity, efficiency and democratic representation. The post-devolution and Scottish Referendum context of debates around “community empowerment” legislation are considered finally, in an historical context.