Abstract
For any public policy to be successful in the long-run it needs to be sold carefully. Local government boundary reform is no exception. No matter how good the plan is unless residents, leaders and staff buy into the idea the full potential of the reform is unlikely to be realised. As a number of former political leaders can attest there are considerable costs involved in selling boundary reform. However, with the right tools and planning these costs might be minimised. In this chapter I first describe the three main types of costs—opportunity, contingency, and legacy—with respect to boundary reform. I then outline the various tools that might be applied to the task of minimising these costs. Following this I spend some time on the oft-neglected after sales care which is not just important to minimising legacy costs, but is also essential to a morally licit reform. I conclude with some remarks about the chances of successfully selling boundary reform.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aristotle (2012) Aristotle: The art of rhetoric. Collins Classics, London
Axelrod R (1981) The evolution of co-operation. Basic Books, Cambridge
Baird M (2015). Media release: fit for the future—$2 billion community windfall by merging unfit councils
Booth W (1974) Modern dogma and the rhetoric of assent. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Dollery B, Kortt M, Grant B (2011) A normative model for local government de-amalgamation in Australia. Aust J Polit Sci 46(4):601–615
Drew J (2018) How losers can turn into winners in disputatious public policy: a heuristic for prospective herestheticians. Aust J Polit Sci. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2018.1520195
Drew J, Dollery B (2014a) Would bigger councils yield scale economies in the greater perth metropolitan region? a critique of the metropolitan local government review for perth local government. Aust J Public Adm 73(1):128–137
Drew J, Dollery B (2014b) separation anxiety—an empirical evaluation of the sunshine coast regional council de-amalgamation. Public Money Mgmt 34(3):213–220
Drew J, Dollery B (2015) Breaking up is hard to do: the de-amalgamation of delatite shire. Public Finance Mgmt 15(1):1–23
Drew J, Grant B, Fisher J (2017) Re-evaluating local government amalgamations: utility maximisation meets the principle of double effect. Policy Polit 45(3):379–394
Drew J, Dollery B, Kortt M (2014) Can’t get no satisfaction. Aust J Public Adm 75(1):65–77
Drew J, Razin E, Andrews R (2018) Rhetoric in municipal amalgamations: a comparative analysis. Local Gov Stud. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2018.1530657
Drew J, Grant B (2017) Multiple agents, blame games and public policy-making: the case of local government reform in New South Wales. Aust J Polit Sci 52(1):37–52
Flinders M & Curry D (2008). Deliberative democracy. elite politics and electoral reform. Policy Stud 29(4): 371–392
Lang A (2007) But is it for real? the british Columbia citizens’ assembly as a model of state-sponsored citizen empowerment. Polit Soc 35(1):35–69
Miyazaki M (2020) Fiscal sustainability and municipal amalgamation in Japan. Pub Adm Quart 44(2):78–103
Riker WH (1986) The art of political manipulation. Yale University Press, New Haven
Rumsfeld D (2002) Press conference by US secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld. NATO, Brussels
Sherman N, Zlotowitz M (1998) The chumash. Mesorah Publications Ltd, New York
Spicer Z (2012) Post-amalgamation politics: how does consolidation impact community decision-making? Can J Urban Res 21(2):90–111
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Drew, J. (2020). Selling Boundary Reform. In: Reforming Local Government. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6503-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6503-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-6502-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-6503-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)