Conflicting Objectives for Rural Local Government: Service Provision to Exurban Communities in Israel

The delivery of public services in rural areas is a problem encountered not only by declining and peripheral areas but also by newly founded exurban communities. The problems of small size are exacerbated by the demand within these communities for high levels and a high quality of service provision. The existing local government network in these rural and rurban areas is unable to cope with the increased demand emanating from these new communities. This is particularly problematic in Israel, where the rural system of local government, the regional councils, have traditionally fulfilled the role of providing services to agricultural and cooperative communities. In this paper the nature of the service demands made by new exurban communities in Israel, the problems encountered by the regional councils in providing these same services, and the tensions which result from this lack of compatibility are discussed. Proposed functional solutions are presented and compared, ranging from minor modifications to the existing system of rural local government to those which require a change in the formal municipal status of the exurban communities.