Merging, disaggregating and clustering local authorities: do structural reforms affect perceptions about local governance and democracy?

Abstract

There is increasing pressure on local authorities to restructure themselves to meet current expectations from the public. Multilevel governance has emerged as one method for such restructuring. Using the results of a survey conducted among 1733 residents of local authorities in Israel, we explore the effects of three specific multilevel governance reformsthe merging, disaggregation and clustering of local government authorities on residents' assessments about local governance and democracy. Our findings underscore the importance of public support for the structural reform. Those who become involved in soft reforms involving bottom-up groups and voluntary coalitions that cluster together are more likely to trust their local authority, feel it responds to their needs satisfactorily and listens to them. However, the more support they express, the more their perceptions are attenuated. In contrast, residents of local authorities that amalgamated with other communities that then went through hard reforms, such as merging and disaggregation involving up-scaling and top-down reforms, had fewer positive opinions about these issues. Only residents who strongly favoured the merger had positive perceptions about local governability and participation in decision-making and were satisfied with local services and trusted the local government. We discuss these findings and draw conclusions about their implications for local structural reforms in an era of local and regional governance.

Regional development policy in Galilee periphery in Israel

“…They offer a way to aggregate regional interests, both rural and urban, without the complexities and pitfalls associated with actual amalgamation. Beeri and Zaidan (2023) examined the impacts of three multilevel governance reforms in Israel—merging, disaggregating, and clustering of local government authorities—on how residents evaluate local governance and democracy. Their study revealed that residents participating in softer reforms, particularly clustering, through grassroots groups and voluntary coalitions, tend to have greater trust in their local authority and feel that it adequately meets their needs and hears their concerns.

MOI looks far ahead while the local authorities are too busy with survival.

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“…Trust needs to be established across diverse groups: among local authorities, between these authorities and NGOs, among elected and appointed officials within municipalities, and between municipalities and the central government. This task is complex and necessitates a slow, deliberate approach (Beeri & Zaidan, 2023; Sicilia et al., 2016; Weiss, 2017).…”

The determinants of population satisfaction from local authorities' activities: Evidence from Armenia

“…Particularly, the determinants of age range, gender, education, region (administrative area occupied), public sector employment, contact with public services during the previous 12 months, and competence about local taxes were tested through a multinomial logistic regression (MLR) model. Satisfaction with local government as a dependent variable was discussed by Bernhard et al (2018) and Lee and Park (2022); explanatory variables such as age, gender, education, governance, and so on, were discussed by Beeri and Zaidan (2021), DeHoog et al (1990), Lee and Park (2022), and Yeh et al (2012) as potential determinants of population satisfaction; while others were chosen, taking into account regional policy peculiarities and ongoing developments in Armenia.…”

The Effects of Sub-National Government Consolidations: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Large-Scale Danish Structural Reform

“…Finally, in related studies, Drew, Dollery, and Kortt (2016) find an inverted 'U-shaped' relationship between population size and service satisfaction for Victorian councils in Australia. Beeri and Zaidan (2021) find that citizens' experiencing reforms involving voluntary coalitions and municipality clustering are more likely to have confidence in their local government's problem-solving capacity and to be satisfied with the local service provision.…”

“…The wider non-experimental cross-sectional evidence confirms the negative association between jurisdiction size and citizens' confidence in the incumbents including Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark (Denters 2002;Denters et al 2014), China (Huang and Deng 2017) (see McDonnell (2020) for an extensive review), while others find no or moderate effects of municipality size on political confidence as emotional and political participation as manifest support in Sweden (Denk 2012) and Denmark (Larsen 2002). A related study assessing differences in citizens' confidence in local authorities following a municipal merger, disaggregation, and clustering (Beeri and Zaidan 2021) find that citizens who had experienced reforms involving voluntary coalitions and municipality clustering, compared to citizens who had experienced top-down amalgamation reforms, were more likely to have confidence in their local authority.…”