Slovenia can be presenet as a small country with an extremely high number of municipalities. Although they are already actively cooperating with each other, there have been a lot of debate through years about municipality mergers. Opinions of people about such changes are strongly shared, therefore the main purpose is to present the results of researched examples of practices that realized intermunicipal cooperation and merger strategies.
I primarily used the descriptive method which enabled me to present the status of the examined challenge. In the review of the professional literature I have focused on the examples of the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) which are structurally the most comparable with Slovenia; as well as I have focused on the status in Slovenia.
By examining the chosen field I found that the beginnings of inter-municipal cooperations go way back in the past, while the mergers, which represent more radical changes in the country and its regulation, are most likely to happen after major fiscal crises – this is one of the most frequent reason for such changes. Despite the fact that many oppose municipal mergers I believe that such transformation would have positive consequences in the public administration.
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