Institutional Adaptation and Territorial Reforms

Abstract

Across Europe and beyond, local governments continue to experience recurrent cycles of territorial reform, mergers, and boundary redefinitions aimed at improving efficiency, equity, and democratic legitimacy. Yet, contemporary research on municipal amalgamations and territorial governance reforms reveals that institutional adaptation rarely follows a linear path. Instead, reforms generate complex patterns of re-institutionalisation, where formal structures and informal practices evolve in tandem, often creating new governance equilibria rather than restoring previous stability. This panel invites papers that examine the drivers, processes, and consequences of territorial reform from a comparative and institutional perspective. We welcome contributions exploring how these reforms reshape the balance between democratic responsiveness and administrative capacity, influence local autonomy, and reconfigure the relationships between political and bureaucratic actors. Empirical and theoretical studies addressing the long-term institutionalisation of amalgamated entities, their fiscal and managerial performance, and their effects on citizen participation and political representation are especially encouraged. Attention is also drawn to the unintended outcomes of reform, such as the emergence of hybrid governance forms, shifts in local identity, and the persistence of informal coordination mechanisms. By connecting debates on scale, multilevel governance, and institutional resilience, this panel aims to advance our understanding of how territorial reforms affect the democratic and functional operation of local governance. Comparative and interdisciplinary contributions, including cross-national analyses and historical institutionalist approaches, are particularly welcome.

Title	Details
Formal Rationalisation Without Substance: Symbolic Territorial Restructuring and Artificial Regions in France Under European Pressure	View Paper Details
The Post-Merger Fiscal Resilience Cost of Voluntary Mergers	View Paper Details
Jurisdictional Consolidation and Local Economic Development	View Paper Details
Vertical Consolidation and Voter Turnout: Evidence from England	View Paper Details
Municipal Amalgamations as a Threat to Democracy and the Principles of Local Self-Government: Small Municipalities’ Resistance to the “Big is Beautiful” Paradigm	View Paper Details