the "purity" of IMC, so municipalities shall be involved primarily. Finland Especially in the thinly populated Finland inter-municipal cooperation has been an effective tool to ensure public services at reasonable cost. Finnish local governments are self-governing with a large variety of responsibilities. Due to this fact the services provided by the municipals are numerous. Even service competition between municipals is quite common in Finland. France France was long time mainly governed by a central state. Within the last century the municipals gained more and more autonomy. Nevertheless inter-municipal is often performed on voluntary basis. As discussing about territorial consolidation is politically hazardous in France, IMC becomes more and more important to maintain public services at reasonable costs. Germany Inter-municipal cooperation has a long history in Germany. In the administrative system of Germany (State, Federal States, Communities) the municipals have to finance their services themselves. Therefore municipals have a natural interest in providing public services efficiently. United Kingdom In contrast to other European Countries local governments are highly restricted in the United Kingdom. Therefore inter-municipal cooperation is not that common in the UK. Although municipalities have the authority to perform public services they often do not have the possibility to raise additional fees. United States There are 39,000 local governments United States and 22,000 have under 2,500 inhabitants. Besides providing public services themselves, municipalities in the USA have used privatization (contracting out) and cooperation with neighbouring municipalities for a long period of time. Cooperation is used to maintain independent identities and still achieve economies of scale. Most of the cooperative ventures are single-function (education, water, housing, transport). See also Inter-municipal land use planning Further reading Bel, G., & Warner, M. E. (2015). Inter-municipal Cooperation and Costs: Expectation and Evidence. Public Administration. Hulst, R. (2007). Inter-Municipal Cooperation. Amsterdam: Springer. Samson, A. L., Duran-Vigneron, P., & Breuillé, M. L. (2011). To assemble to resemble? A study of tax disparities among French municipalities, Working Papers 2011/13, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB). Sorensen, R. J. (2007). Does dispersed public ownership impair efficiency? The case of refuse collection in Norway. Public Administration. Spicer, Z. (2017). Bridging the accountability and transparency gap in inter-municipal collaboration. Local Government Studies. Voorn, B., Van Genugten, M.L., and Van Thiel, S. (2017). The efficiency and effectiveness of municipally owned corporations: a systematic review. Local Government Studies. References External links Inter-municipal cooperation (Council of Europe, UNDP, Open Society Foundation) Local government finance