Improving Efficiency in Australian Local Government

Structural Reform as a Catalyst for Effective Reform

Bibliographic Data

ID5877089
AuthorsBrian Dollery (0000-0003-2760-865X, University of New England, corresponding author), Lin Crase (0000-0002-3615-7152, La Trobe University), Sue O''Keefe, Sue O’keefe (La Trobe University), Sue O'Keefe
Year2009
Volume47
Issue3
Pages269-279
Publication date2009-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1745-5863 • E-ISSN: 1745-5871
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1745-5871.2009.00583.x
OpenAlexW2008061985
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited11

Municipal amalgamation has been the main policy instrument of local government structural reform programmes in Australia for well over a century. However, council consolidation programs have not achieved the intended cost savings or improved service provision promised by advocates of this means of structural reorganisation. This paper considers whether the failure of municipal amalgamation processes to produce significant economic benefits necessarily implies that structural reform programs that invoke consolidation have no place in Australian local government policy. It is argued that 'top-down' state government structural reform policy initiatives carrying the threat of amalgamation constitute an efficient mechanism for evoking optimal 'bottom-up' structural change models

Business · Economic reform · Economics · Local government · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Structural adjustment · Top-down and bottom-up design · Engineering · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Finance

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