Municipal Merger and Local Democracy: An Assessment of the Merger of Japanese Municipalities

Suzuki, Kohei; Ha, Hyesong

doi:10.4335/16.4.759-784(2018)

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The purpose of most municipal mergers in developed countries is to increase efficiency in service provision and spending. Some local governments were able to improve efficiency by merging (Reingewertz, 2012), others were unable to achieve better efficiency (Allers & Geertsema, 2016;Suzuki & Ha, 2018). Municipal splitting, on the other hand, has been pursued often in developing countries (Suzuki & Ha, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implication of Regional Split in Local Government Efficiency: Evidence From North Sumatra, Indonesia

Rambe

2020

JESP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purposes of this study are to (1) measure the level of the relative efficiency of educational spending in achieving the years of schooling at local governments in North Sumatra Province, (2) Compare the relative efficiency level of per capita educational spending between the parent local government and the local governments resulting from the split. The analytical method used is Data Envelopment Analysis with an output-oriented model. The approach used is a variable return to scale. In measuring efficiency, the input used is educational spending per capita, while the output used is the years of schooling. The results showed that the average level of the relative efficiency of 33 local governments in North Sumatra decreased from 2015 to 2018. In 2015, there were three relatively efficient local governments: Medan, Pematang Siantar, and Labuhan Batu. However, in 2018, only Medan is relatively efficient. The efficiency level of Labuhan Batu declined in 2018. In fact, all parent local governments and local governments resulting from split experienced a decrease inefficiency. Thus, a regional split has not succeeded in increasing the relative efficiency of local governments in North Sumatra Province.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implication of Regional Split in Local Government Efficiency: Evidence From North Sumatra, Indonesia

Rambe

2020

JESP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The argument we have presented above has implications for the ongoing debates around the world, about the need for amalgamation reforms. From previous studies, we can be fairly certain that amalgamations have adverse effects on local democracy (e.g., Dreyer-Lassen and Serritzlew 2014;Hansen 2014;Kjaer, Hjelmar, and Olsen 2010;McDonnell 2019;Nielsen 2003;Suzuki and Ha 2017). 5 One could argue that such costs would be acceptable if we were certain that economies of scale are realized through amalgamations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Coerced Municipal Amalgamations Thwart the Values of Local Self-Government

Erlingsson

Ödalen

Wångmar

2020

Urban Affairs Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Arguments invoking increased functional efficiency have had a profound impact on local government reforms in advanced democracies during the past 60 years. Consequently, most mature democracies have implemented municipal amalgamation reforms, often through top-down coercion. In this article, we demonstrate how far central governments have been willing to go, in terms of coercion, by providing an in-depth historical account of Swedish municipal amalgamations between 1952 and 1974. Debates on amalgamation reforms have typically revolved around pros and cons of mergers. But very few discussions have addressed the more fundamental moral problem of enforcing amalgamations through coercion. Often, large-scale mergers are carried through against the expressed will of municipalities who wish to remain self-governing. In this article, we present a normative defense of strong local self-government, based partly on values of individual autonomy, and partly on group-based human rights, and we show how coerced amalgamations are at odds with these values.

show abstract

“…Although Japan records high levels of innovation performance from a cross‐national perspective (Cornell University, INSEAD, and WIPO, 2019), few studies exist on public sector innovation and the determinants of innovation in Japanese municipalities. However, several studies examine innovation‐related aspects and organizational performances of Japanese municipalities, such as aspirations to be a leading local government (Aoki, 2019), disaster recovery and restoration (Aoki, 2014, 2015, 2018; Dollery, Kinoshita, & Yamazaki, 2019), accrual accounting innovation (Kobayashi, Yamamoto, & Ishikawa, 2016), municipal spending cuts and citizen responses (Suzuki, 2017), citizen participation (Granier & Kudo, 2016; Uddin, Mori, & Adhikari, 2019), gender and risk‐taking behaviour in local public finance (Suzuki & Avellaneda, 2018), managerial changes and administrative reforms, including large‐scale consolidation of municipalities (Suzuki & Ha, 2018; Suzuki & Sakuwa, 2016; Yamada, 2016, 2018), and New Public Management (Kudo, 2015).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and non‐linear innovation effects of demographic shifts

Suzuki

Avellaneda

2020

Aust J Public Adm

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A varied set of pressures drive organizational innovation. Among these pressures, demographic shifts seem to boost innovation, as the public sector responds to the arrival of migrants and to community changes in race and ethnic composition. However, we know little about innovation by governments in response to expected population decline. In particular, studies have under‐examined how anticipated demographic pressures prompt public organizations to innovate. This study undertakes this task by arguing that innovation is more visible in municipalities facing greater anticipated demographic decline. However, we also argue for a non‐linear relationship in which too strong and/or too weak expected demographic declines lead to less visible innovation (inverted U‐shape effect). These propositions were tested with a data set of Japanese municipalities and employing a dose–response model. Findings show that anticipated demographic declines directly boost innovation visibility. However, too strong and/or too weak unexpected demographic declines make innovation less visible.

show abstract

Municipal Merger and Local Democracy: An Assessment of the Merger of Japanese Municipalities

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Implication of Regional Split in Local Government Efficiency: Evidence From North Sumatra, Indonesia

Implication of Regional Split in Local Government Efficiency: Evidence From North Sumatra, Indonesia

How Coerced Municipal Amalgamations Thwart the Values of Local Self-Government

Direct and non‐linear innovation effects of demographic shifts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About