Amalgamations, mergers, intermunicipal cooperations, or consolidations: in recent years, many developed countries have approved territorial reforms of administrative boundaries aimed at pursuing objectives of cost control and administrative efficiency. Italy too, with the reform of the local authority system approved in 2000, strongly encouraged inter-municipal mergers and cooperation: since 2002, the number of municipalities has fallen from 8,022 to 7,901, with the abolition of 326 small municipalities and the creation of 125 new larger-sized local governments.

In rare cases, however, municipalities split up. As happened in the Seventies in Puglia, when five "frazioni" - for historical and identity reasons - requested and obtained the split from the capital municipalities. What impact has the separation had on the citizens' voter turnout? This study investigated, with recently developed evaluation methods, this little-known aspect of territorial dynamics.