Love thy neighbour: a social capital approach to local government partnerships

Abstract

While controversy surrounds compulsory consolidation as a means of improving the operational efficiency of local government, the literature suggests that gains can accrue to groups of local councils which form voluntary alliances as platforms for shared service delivery. However, real-world experience has demonstrated that voluntary alliances in local government are difficult to establish and do not always endure in the longer term. After reviewing the limited extant scholarly literature on shared services and local council voluntary alliances, as well as applications of the social capital approach to inter-organisational endeavour, such as the venture capital model, this article argues that the social capital approach can offer insights into local council cooperative alliance and shared service models. © 2011 The Authors