Local Government Structural Reform in Anglosphere and OECD Countries

Abstract

Structural reform has transformed the landscape of Australian local government activity. The meaning and nature of structural reform in the context of local government amalgamation is investigated in this paper. Examples of overseas experience of local government amalgamation as a preferred structural reform mechanism used by governments to reduce council numbers are considered. Local government reform experience in the Anglosphere nations of the United Kingdom, United States of America (USA), Canada and New Zealand and OECD countries Germany, France, Italy and Spain is examined. Amalgamation of local government units occurred in most of these countries for largely the same reason; to improve the operational efficiency of local government. Despite the very large numbers of local government units in some jurisdictions, strong community attachment to locality and the virtues of localism had meant that, in recent decades, higher spheres of government had not been prepared to attempt to impose local government mergers.