<title>Abstract</title> Agencification has extended and intensified the delegation problem. It has created new (administrative) principals, who are confronted with even more uncertainty as agents operate at arm's length. Trust is suggested as a new mode of governance. Based on the literature seven hypotheses...

Since the 1990s, many of the 2,842 Swiss municipalities have reached their performance limits when fulfilling their tasks. As a response to this problem, different reforms have been introduced by the local authorities. The article focuses on the intermunicipal cooperation (IMC) and the municipal...