Globalization or glocalization - global trends, local effects of territorial reforms

Abstract

Research background: The globalization processes are not only of an economic and cultural nature - but they also unify trends in the organization and management of administration, including at the local level. The idea of economization of administration was promoted in the broad stream of reforms described as New Public Management. It was often expressed as a postulate of the territorial reorganization of local governments. The reforms of these structures, motivated by the economies of scale, were to lead to the elimination of their allegedly too fragmented nature. Purpose of the article: The questions about the global scale and effectiveness of these reforms resulted in the objectives of the study, which were formulated as follows: - identification of the scope and scale of territorial reforms and assessment of their global character; - evaluation of the real impact of these reforms in terms of economies of scale. Methods: Methodologically, the work is the critical meta-analysis of the research results of consolidation reforms from many countries of the world. Findings & Value added: The results lead to the conclusion that consolidation is a global trend. However, they do not unequivocally confirm the successes in achieving economies of scale in the provision of public services. The added value of this research is to draw attention to the fact that uncritical implementation of global trends does not automatically bring the assumed effects. It is necessary to apply in practice glocalization, i.e. critical adaptation of global solutions to local institutional conditions.