International Comparative Study on Municipal cooperation in Large Area

与其他发达国家的市町村体制一样，日本的地方政府也在经历着通过合并提高市町村服务效率的改革时期。然而，合并仍然是实现地方政府改革的一种有争议的方法。一些批评者认为，强制合并可能会削弱地方民主的活力，减少公民的参与。在本研究中，我们分析了国际上的市政合并与合作，并进行了比较。我们在每个国家进行了深入的实地调查。在一些国家，作为提高地方政府服务提供的有效性的一种可能成功的方法，我们发现从市町村合并到共享服务等替代模式的重点发生了变化。2006年7月在福冈举行的国际政治学协会（IPSA）世界大会上，我们也举行了会议。与芬兰的Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko & Pekka Valkama教授、法国的帕特里克勒利代克教授和泰国的Nakharin Mektrairat教授进行了讨论。关于合并和市政合作的讨论令人兴奋，我们在这些问题上有很多发现。在日本，合并运动已经平静下来，市政的数量从3200个减少到1800个。虽然合并政策到了一个转折点，但市政当局的下一步尚不清楚。希望本文的研究能对日本今后的市政改革有所启示。

In common with municipal systems in other advanced countries, Japan's local government experiences period of reform as policy makers seek to enhance the efficiency of municipal service delivery by amalgamation. However, amalgamation remains a controversial method of achieving local government reform. Some critics contend that coercive amalgamation may diminish the vibrancy of local democracy and reduce participation by the citizenry.In this study, we analyzed municipal amalgamation and cooperation internationally and compare them.We had intensive field survey in each country. In some countries, we find a change in emphasis away from municipal amalgamation toward alternative models such as shared services as a potentially successful method of improving the operational effectiveness of local government service provision.We also had the session at International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress in Fukuoka, July 2006, and we made discussion with Prof. Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko ＆ Pekka Valkama (Finland), Prof. Patrick Le Lidec (France), and also with Prof. Nakharin Mektrairat (Thailand). The discussion on amalgamation and municipal cooperation was exciting and we have got many findings on these matters.In Japan, the movement towards amalgamation has calmed down and the number of municipalities decreased from 3200 to 1800. Although the amalgamation policy comes to a turning point, the next steps on municipalities is not clear. We hope that our study has some implication on Japan's next steps on municipality reform.