Abstract

The administrative map of Belgium was fundamentally altered in 1975, when mergers reduced the number of municipalities from 2359 to 589. This article deals with the mergers of municipalities in the district of Leuven, and in particular with the share the municipalities themselves had in the decision-making process.Although there was a formal possibility of participating in the decision-making process the dissatisfaction has not decreased in comparison with earlier protests against the originally planned mergers.This appears to be logically linked to the scarce results of the municipal advices : only in 4.08 % of the cases the merger was adapted according to the wishes of the municipalities themselves. The lack of coordination among the various advices is certainly one of the reasons of this development, but nevertheless the question remains to what extent gerrymandering and compromises among political parties played a decisive role in the decision-making.