Taking Time Seriously in the Study of Municipal Amalgamations: A Comparative Research Agenda for European Countries

Prior comparative analyses of 70 years of amalgamation reforms in Europe have been bounded by both time and space. Beginning the analysis of amalgamation reforms in the post-World War II years, the conventional explanation argues that amalgamation reforms occurred when countries engaged in decentralization reforms to develop Welfare State functions. We argue this conventional explanation ignores both historical events that took place before WWII and cross-country diffusion processes over the last 70 years. The paper employs a Comparative Historical Analysis approach to 1) identify historical patterns of amalgamation reforms in Europe and to 2) provide a macro-causal explanation to make sense of continuities and discontinuities in these reforms. We unpack four key elements of time required to investigate municipal amalgamations in a comparative manner: a) the historical time of adoption (enactment); b) the sequencing of reforms across countries; c) the tempo of the reforms (fast or radical vs. slow or incremental); and d) the duration of the reform (implementation). In our search for a macro-causal explanation for amalgamation reforms we highlight the different historical time of amalgamation reforms, with some taking place almost two centuries ago (Portugal, 1835), others early after WWII (e.g. Sweden, 1948-52), others much later (e.g., Greece, 1999; Georgia 2002-2006), more than once (e.g., Denmark, 1960s and 2004-05), or never (Spain). Next, we employ the elements of physical time – sequencing, tempo and duration – to uncover the complex causal processes and patterns that generated these territorial reforms.