Part A: Local government reform in Australia. - 1. Introduction. - 1.1. Introduction. - 1.2.Outline of book. - 2. Debate on structural reform. - 2.1. Introduction. - 2.2. Chief problems in Australian local government. - 2.3. Structural reform and council amalgamation. - 2.4. Amalgamation as a catalyst for structural reform. - 2.5. Concluding remarks. - Part B: Shared services in local government. - 3. Conceptual perspectives on shared services. - 3.1. Introduction. - 3.2. Public inquiry perspectives on shared services. - 3.3. Analytical foundations of shared services. - 3.4. Characteristics of services suitable for shared provision. - 3.5. Classifying Australian shared service models. - 3.6. Motivation for shared services models in local government. - 3.7. Concluding remarks. - 4. Theoretical perspectives on shared services. - 4.1. Introduction. - 4.2. Economic approaches o shared services in local government. - 4.3. Social capital theory of shared services. - 4.4. Regional governance theory and shared service entities. - 4.5. Concluding remarks. - 5. Empirical perspectives on economies of scale and scope. - 5.1. Introduction. - 5.2. Economies of scale. - 5.3. Economies of size. - 5.4. Economies of density. 5. 5. Economies of scope. - 5.6. Concluding remarks. - 6. Empirical evidence on shared services in local government. - 6.1. Introduction. - 6.2. Australian evidence on shared services. - 6.3. International evidence on shared services. - 6.4. Implications of empirical evidence. - 6.5. Concluding remarks. - Part C: Shared services in practice. - 7. Regional organisations of council. - 7.1. Introduction. - 7.2. Background of ROCS as an instrument of regional policy. - 7.3. Marshall and Witherby (2002): snapshot of ROCS. - 7.4. Three case studies. - 7.5. Concluding observations. - 8. Strategic alliances of councils. - 8.1. Introduction. - 8.2. Conceptual basis for alliance models. - 8.3. Case studies. - 8.4. Concluding remarks. - 9. Vertical shared services. - 9.1. Introduction. - 9.2. Conceptual basis of vertical shared services. - 9.3. Case studies of vertical shared services in Australian local government. - 9.4. Comparative observations. - Part D: Policy implications. - 10. Policy implications. - 10.1. Introduction. - 10.2. Policy implications.