"Scholars interested in contesting claims about the advantages and costs of cityûcounty consolidation will find this book a very useful text. Leland and Thurmaier developed a careful research design and recruited a group of researchers to study each of nine cityûcounty consolidations that occurred in order to test three broad hypotheses about the consequences. They found mixed evidence that is presented very carefully and provides the foundation for considerable future policy and research applications."-Elinor Ostrom senior research director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, and founding director, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State University<BR><BR>"Never before has a book taken a sample of cityûcounty 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."ùBeth Walter Honadle, professor of political science and affiliated faculty, School of Planning, University of Cincinnati<BR><BR>"This volume, employing a well-designed and executed comparative research design, provides the reader with the effect of cityûcounty 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 on urban affairs"ùNelson Wikstrom professor of political science, Virginia Commonwealth University<BR><BR>Suzanne M. Leland is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Kurt Thurmaier is a professor and director of the Division of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University.