Small Town and Village in Bavaria

Peter H. Merkl is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published extensively on comparative and German government and politics, in particular the origin of the West German Republic and a series of five-year volumes on German politics named The Federal Republic of Germany at 40, 45, and 50. (He edited the first three but the series continues).

• List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction The Plan for this Book Chapter 1. Changing Villages and Small Places in Bavaria Contemporary Social Change Population Trends Stages of Community Development The Transformation of Agriculture Chapter 2. The Small Town or Village Community Secularization and Community Life The Elementary School and the Community Social Groups and Festivals in West Middle Franconia Economic Enterprises of the Community The Future of Small Places Chapter 3. Planning Local Territorial Reform The Era of Reforms Federal Initiatives Toward Raumordnung Bavaria Tackles Territorial Reorganization Regional Planning and Administrative Reform The Kreisreform The Independent City and Hinterland Reforms The Communal Territorial Reform Chapter 4. The Implementation of the Reform Implementation of the Local Reform The Reform in Middle Franconia Patterns of Reaction to Bavaria's Reform Toward a Modern, Functional Society Chapter 5. No Town is an Island Local Government in the West German System Federalism in the Basic Law The Changing Federal Financial Constitution Cooperative Federalism or Politikverflechtung? The Future Role of the Communes The Laaender and the European Union Chapter 6. Conclusion Mini-Towns and Micro-Communes Revisiting Wolframs-Eschenbach Re-interviewing the Burgermeisters Small Town and Village in Bavaria Appendix: Tables A1 - A15 Selected Bibliography Index

"Merkl analyzes in exemplary fashion the conditions, developments, and results of state-imposed modernizations in Central Europe and helps to understand these better." · German Studies Review