If Territorial Fragmentation is a Problem, is Amalgamation a Solution? An East European Perspective

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Notes

1 For a wider discussion of this process see Swianiewicz (2002).

2 Fragmentation in CEE countries has not gone as far as in France, where there are municipal jurisdictions that have no permanent residents at all.

3 The size of municipalities in the United Kingdom are not comparable to any other European country, so the UK has been excluded from the figure and related calculations.

4 An optimal size of a local unit has been an issue of debates for many years. It is fascinating to notice that the size indicated by the Polish study very much reminds the ideal city described by Plato: ‘The number of our citizens shall be 5,040 – this will be a convenient number, and these shall be owners of the land and protectors of the allotment’ (Plato, Laws, Book V, trans. B.V. Jowett). Plato was counting heads of households only. So, taking into account the size of their families and slaves, he meant a city of around 30,000 inhabitants.

5 See, for example, a review of such studies in Sharpe (1995); see also the wider discussion in Swianiewicz (2002).

6 As Baldersheim & Rose (2010, forthcoming) suggest: ‘“Requirements from Brussels” may sometimes be a convenient excuse for national policy makers to rush through unpopular reforms.’ A similar observation on the reforms in Central Europe has been made by Hughes et al. (2003).

7 For an excellent discussion of the French case and an alternative point of view see Hertzog (2010), also Borraz & Le Gales (2004).