IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/pubmgr/v5y2003i4p551-571.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The causes, spread and effects of intermunicipal cooperation and municipal mergers in Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Reto Steiner

Abstract

Since the 1990s, many of the 2,842 Swiss municipalities have reached their performance limits when fulfilling their tasks. As a response to this problem, different reforms have been introduced by the local authorities. The article focuses on the intermunicipal cooperation (IMC) and the municipal mergers that belong to the most widespread reforms in Switzerland. A survey mailed to all Swiss municipalities and thirteen case studies show that municipal mergers tend to be implemented in small, weakly performing municipalities. On the other hand, IMC is widespread among all types of municipalities. Reform-friendly authorities, intensive social contacts among the inhabitants of the municipalities, a favorable topographical location and the policies of the superordinate government level promote enthusiasm for reforms. Following mergers and cooperative ventures, the performance quality generally improves. On the other hand, this seldom eases the municipal budget situation.

Suggested Citation

  • Reto Steiner, 2003. "The causes, spread and effects of intermunicipal cooperation and municipal mergers in Switzerland," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 551-571, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:5:y:2003:i:4:p:551-571
    DOI: 10.1080/1471903032000178581
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1471903032000178581
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1471903032000178581?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D N King, 1994. "A Model of Optimum Local Authority Size," Working Papers Series 94/1, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David N King & Yue Ma, 2000. "Local Authority Provision versus Club Provision," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(2), pages 207-223, April.
    2. David N King & Yue Ma, 2000. "Local Authority Size in Theory and Practice," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(3), pages 255-270, June.
    3. Mark Callanan & Ronan Murphy & Aodh Quinlivan, 2014. "The Risks of Intuition: Size, Costs and Economies of Scale in Local Government," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 45(3), pages 371-403.
    4. Gerard Turley & John McDonagh & Stephen McNena & Arkadiusz Grzedzinski, 2018. "Optimum Territorial Reforms in Local Government: An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 49(4), pages 463-488.
    5. Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Jiménez, Juan Luis & Suárez-Alemán, Ancor, 2014. "An initial investigation into the impact of tourism on local budgets: A comparative analysis of Spanish municipalities," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 124-133.
    6. Bernard Dafflon, 2013. "Voluntary amalgamation of local governments: the Swiss debate in the European context," Chapters, in: Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Challenge of Local Government Size, chapter 8, pages 189-220, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:5:y:2003:i:4:p:551-571. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPXM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.