Abstract
What is the optimal size of local government units? For many years, this has been one of the most frequently discussed issues related to the organisation of a state on sub-national levels. It is striking how the practical answer to this question varies among European countries. On the one hand we have England, the Nordic countries and Holland with relatively large municipalities. On the other hand, France is divided into almost 40 thousand very small local government units. The variation is briefly illustrated by the table 1. In Central Europe, the post-communist reforms resulted in extreme territorial fragmentation in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia whereas Poland retained its fairly large municipalities.
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Swianiewicz, P. (2003). How beautiful is bigger? In search of the optimal size for local democracy. In: Baldersheim, H., Illner, M., Wollmann, H. (eds) Local Democracy in Post-Communist Europe. Urban Research International, vol 2. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-10677-7_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-10677-7_12
Publisher Name: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden
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