The vast majority of Spanish municipalities are very small. Recently, some Autonomous Communities have been establishing **supra-municipal** or district authorities (Comarcas), grouping several municipalities in order to manage the delivery of common local services. Public-private partnership initiatives were introduced into Spain by the Municipal Services Act of 1955, which allows the provision of local services by private operators.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPag...


A popular coping strategy is **inter-municipal **cooperation, a phenomenon that, despite its ubiquity, has not been subject to systematic comparative research. This book presents an overview of inter-municipal cooperation in eight European countries. Each country study sketches its attendant forms, their institutional design, the tasks and competencies attributed to joint authorities of municipalities and the way inter-municipal cooperation operates in practice. Both performance and democratic aspects of cooperation are recurring topics. The last chapter of the book presents a comparative analysis and reflects on the future of inter-municipal cooperation.
http://www.books.co.uk/rudie_hulst_andre_van_montfort/interm...