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Reasons for Inter-municipal Cooperation: A Comparative Analysis of Finland, Iceland and Norway

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Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Europe

Part of the book series: Governance and Public Management ((GPM))

Abstract

The broad responsibilities of Nordic local governments may explain why inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is rather frequent among Nordic municipalities. This is, however, not a sufficient explanation for the variance in institutional features we find in the Nordic countries. Hence, we develop a more comprehensive model in the chapter, asking to what extent legislative features and the characteristics of local government systems may explain the variation in IMC. The empirical part of the chapter describes IMC in a number of policy areas, and considerable differences emerge. Although we note that the profile of IMC use in different sectors varies among the three countries, these differences are not caused by variations in fragmentation and decentralization. In light of the evidence, legal and constitutional explanations seem more pertinent.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Source: Statistics Norway, registry of conurbations.

  2. 2.

    The number of local governments in 2013, before the implementation of the current reform (Askim et al. 2016).

  3. 3.

    1.1.2016. Source: Statistics Norway.

  4. 4.

    Oslo is a county exempt city, and the city government is in charge of tasks otherwise devolved to county governments.

  5. 5.

    Key tasks include kindergartens, primary education, social services, primary health care, care services for the elderly and the disabled, local roads, water and sewage, culture and recreation.

  6. 6.

    Interkommunalt samarbeid, §27 of the Local Government Act.

  7. 7.

    Vertskommune, §28 of the Local Government Act.

  8. 8.

    Inter-municipal corporation act of 1999.

  9. 9.

    Kan vurdere å inkludere samvirkeforetak og stiftelser. Jacobsen (2014) har valgt å ekskludere dette.

  10. 10.

    §27.

  11. 11.

    Ot.prp. nr. 95 (20015-2006), see Jacobsen (2014): 80–81.

  12. 12.

    Notably, Norway scores lower than Finland and Iceland on indicators of fiscal autonomy (p. 37) and policy discretion (p. 34).

  13. 13.

    Samkomulag ríkis og sveitarfélaga um tilfærslu þjónustu við fatlaða 2010 [Agreement between state and municipalities regarding the transfer of services for people with handicaps]).

  14. 14.

    Bedrifts—og foretaksregisteret (BoF)/Brønnøysundregistrene.

  15. 15.

    Commissioned in four-year intervals since 2000 by the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization, the “Local government database” is overseen by an expert group comprising ministry officials, municipal chief officers as well as leading experts, including a representative of Statistics Norway.

  16. 16.

    Health and care services act, §3–2.2.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business Administration, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland

    Grétar Thór Eythórsson

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Economics, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Pekka Kettunen & Siv Sandberg

  3. Department of Political Science, Oslo University, Oslo, Norway

    Jan Erling Klausen

Authors
  1. Grétar Thór Eythórsson
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  2. Pekka Kettunen
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  3. Jan Erling Klausen
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  4. Siv Sandberg
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Filipe Teles

  2. Department of Local Development and Policy, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw, Warszawa, Poland

    Pawel Swianiewicz

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Eythórsson, G.T., Kettunen, P., Klausen, J.E., Sandberg, S. (2018). Reasons for Inter-municipal Cooperation: A Comparative Analysis of Finland, Iceland and Norway. In: Teles, F., Swianiewicz, P. (eds) Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Europe. Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62819-6_6

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