Inter-municipal Cooperation in Slovenia: An Intermediate Step Towards Regionalisation

Abstract

There is an absence of major top-down reforms in Slovenian local self-government system. Thus there is an ongoing debate on whether time should be vested into bottom-up organic creation of local self-government system or if no more time should be lost and national reform should impose objectives for more economic and efficient local self-government system. Slovenia should be a poster child for inter-municipal cooperation, due to extreme heterogeneity of municipal sizes, resulting in a number of small municipalities that are struggling to meet regulatory demands and standards. This coupled with the absence of regions, should make for flourishing grounds for inter-municipal cooperation. This chapter presents how sound arguments for establishment of inter-municipal cooperation do not always result favourably—as in vibrant and productive web of inter-municipal cooperation.