Territorial fragmentation in post-communist Romania: the not so curious case of a de-amalgamation reform

Stănuș Cristina ()
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Stănuș Cristina: Department of International Relations, Political Science and Security Studies, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania

Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, 2021, vol. 25, issue 1, 62-70

Abstract: The efficiency-driven trend towards amalgamation characterising local government reforms in Europe seems to have escaped Romania, which displays a significant increase in the number of local governments post-1989. This is the result of rural first-tier local governments splitting into smaller units. The paper examines objective factors and subjective motivations that have shaped the behaviour of both national and local actors in dealing with territorial reform. First, it explores the rationale and rationality of a central government initiative to facilitate municipal splits against a set of criteria derived from the literature. Second, it examines the municipal splits occurring between 1991 and 2018 against alternative or concurring explanations developed in the literature based on economic, socio-cultural and political elements. The paper argues that in the highly charged political context of the post-communist countries it is reasonable to expect a dominance of subjective rather than objective factors in decision-making on territorial reform.

Keywords: Territorial reforms; de-amalgamation; local government; Romania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:mgrsod:v:25:y:2021:i:1:p:62-70:n:5

DOI: 10.2478/mgrsd-2020-0044

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