Intermunicipal mergers have become a recurrent reform across many polities in the last few decades (Fox and Gurley, 2006). Although mergers raised high expectations in term of efficiency and quality of service delivery, their... [ view full abstract ]
Intermunicipal mergers have become a recurrent reform across many polities in the last few decades (Fox and Gurley, 2006). Although mergers raised high expectations in term of efficiency and quality of service delivery, their implementation has been patchy in practice and often encountered fierce resistance at local level (Schaap and Karsten,2016). Therefore, more fine-grain analysis of the process of launching and implementing mergers is needed.
The present paper focuses on voluntary mergers and addresses, in an exploratory way the following research questions:
-How are the expected benefits of mergers (“push” factors) presented by the promoters?
-How do opponents react and what are the main potential problems (“pull factors”)
deemed as relevant by them?
-How do pre-merger conditions do affect the dynamics of the merger process?
In looking for answers, the paper analyses three cases of mergers within the program of voluntary mergers enacted in Italy by an intermediate tier of government (the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Northern East of Italy) in the period 2014-2017.Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) is one of the so-called “special statute” regions in the Italian subnational government system: as such it enjoys wider law-making power, especially in defining LG’s legal and financial framework.
Results can contribute to academic research on municipal mergers, adding knowledge on the factors that influence the process of launching and implementing mergers, through first-hand qualitative evidence. On the other side, the paper can provide policy makers with evidence useful to understand how mergers work on the field and what are, beyond reform talks, the barriers to implementation and their dynamics.
