Size of Municipalities, Efficiency, and Citizen Participation: A Cross-European Perspective

Municipalities in Europe vary enormously in size both between and within individual countries. There is no conclusive evidence, however, that these differences have a significant impact on the efficiency of local public service provision or on the levels of citizen participation in local public life. In this paper it is suggested that flexible and problem-oriented legislative, institutional, and managerial innovation provide meaningful alternatives to local government boundary reform.