This volume, employing a well designed and executed comparative research design, provides the reader with the effect of city-county consolidation in promoting local governmental efficiency and economic development in nine communities. A much needed volume, it is must reading for all scholars of urban government and politics and is an ideal supplementary text to be utilized in graduate courses focusing ... Read moreon urban affairs. -Nelson Wikstrom, professor of political science, Virginia Commonwealth University Never before has a book taken a sample of city-county consolidations, attempted to identify control pairs for comparison, delineated the promises made in the preconsolidation campaigns, and used these promises to study the extent to which those promises were met. This book will be of interest to political scientists, experts in public administration, and students of local government. -Beth Walter Honadle, professor of political science and affiliated faculty, School of Planning, University of Cincinnati Show Less