Territorial changes of municipalities are a common phenomenon. There can be changes in the borders between existing municipalities or a change in the number of municipalities. If the number of municipalities increases or decreases significantly,then we are talking about territorial reform of local self-government. The territorial reform of local self-government is a perennial issue of the optimal size of municipalities. The basic goal of territorial changes in municipalities is to increase the efficiency of local communities in times of economic crisis, as well as to reduce costs. However, since there is no magic formula for determining the optimal size of municipalities, countries approach and try to approach the optimal size of municipalities in different ways. In the case of these changes, it is necessary to determine the appropriate relationship between size and efficiency on the one hand, and the impact on democratic processes on the other hand. The number of municipalities in Europe has generally been decreasing in recent decades. In Slovenia, the number of municipalities has been increasing since 1994. In the thesis, we analyzed these processes in selected European countries (Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Greece) and compared them with the development in Slovenia. We found that the selected countries chose different strategies. The strategy of merging municipalities in Estonia took place from the bottom to up "bottom-up" according to a mixed method of approach in Denmark and Greece it took place from the top to down "top-down", the German states followed a mixed strategy when merging their municipalities according to the so called strategy "carrot and stick" in Austria it took place only in a certain area on a partial scale, a hybrid method or a mild form top to down "top-down" approach and was implemented in stages. We believe that in the case of territorial reform of local self- government in Slovenia, it would be most appropriate to use the strategies that were implemented in most European countries in a top to down "top-down" manner, because these are mostly mandatory or forced associations due to the intervention and active role of the state in processes of merging municipalities.
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