<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The efficiency-driven trend towards amalgamation characterising local government reforms in Europe seems to have escaped Romania, which displays a significant increase in the number of local governments post-1989. This is the result of rural first-tier local governments splitting into smaller units. The paper examines objective factors and subjective motivations that have shaped the behaviour of both national and local actors in dealing with territorial reform. First, it explores the rationale and rationality of a central government initiative to facilitate municipal splits against a set of criteria derived from the literature. Second, it examines the municipal splits occurring between 1991 and 2018 against alternative or concurring explanations developed in the literature based on economic, socio-cultural and political elements. The paper argues that in the highly charged political context of the post-communist countries it is reasonable to expect a dominance of subjective rather than objective factors in decision-making on territorial reform.</p>
</abstract>

The efficiency-driven trend towards amalgamation characterising local government reforms in Europe seems to have escaped Romania, which displays a significant increase in the number of local governments post-1989. This is the result of rural first-tier local governments splitting into smaller units. The paper examines objective factors and subjective motivations that have shaped the behaviour of both national and local actors in dealing with territorial reform. First, it explores the rationale and rationality of a central government initiative to facilitate municipal splits against a set of criteria derived from the literature. Second, it examines the municipal splits occurring between 1991 and 2018 against alternative or concurring explanations developed in the literature based on economic, socio-cultural and political elements. The paper argues that in the highly charged political context of the post-communist countries it is reasonable to expect a dominance of subjective rather than objective factors in decision-making on territorial reform.

<bold>Territorial fragmentation</bold> in post-communist Romania: the not so curious case of a de-amalgamation reform

Department of International Relations, Political Science and Security Studies

Miscellanea Geographica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

 in post-communist Romania: the not so curious case of a de-amalgamation reform

The efficiency-driven trend towards amalgamation characterising local government reforms in Europe seems to have escaped Romania, which displays a significant...

	Key aspects	Rural local governments (communes)	Urban local governments
1925	Reform for administrative unification of Romanian provinces	8,751	179
1950	Significant loss of territory in WW2; Soviet-inspired territorial organisation	4,052	148
1968	Reversal to traditional territorial organisation, forced amalgamation	2,706	236
1990	Small scale reforms between 1968 and 1989	2,688	260
2004	Immediate consequences of 2001 reform allowing voluntary de-amalgamation	2,827	314
2019	Current situation	2,862	319

Territorial fragmentation in post-communist Romania: the not so curious case of a de-amalgamation reform

Published Online: Jan 29, 2021

Page range: 62 - 70

Received: Apr 29, 2020

Accepted: Jul 24, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2020-0044

Keywords
Territorial reforms, de-amalgamation, local government, Romania

© 2021 Cristina Stănuș, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

First-tier local governments in Romania, 1925–2019

Territorial fragmentation in post-communist Romania: the not so curious case of a de-amalgamation reform

Published Online: Jan 29, 2021

Page range: 62 - 70

Received: Apr 29, 2020

Accepted: Jul 24, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2020-0044

KeywordsTerritorial reforms, de-amalgamation, local government, Romania

© 2021 Cristina Stănuș, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

First-tier local governments in Romania, 1925–2019

Keywords
Territorial reforms, de-amalgamation, local government, Romania