Local democracy: A Scandinavian perspective

Local governments are strong actors in the Scandinavian countries. Their autonomy is usually based on either constitutional or other legal ground. They also have comprehensive tasks and hence the majority of public employees work in municipalities. At the same time the abundance of tasks has led to a growing interest by the state to influence the choices of the municipalities. In Finland an overwhelming majority of local government tasks may be compulsory ones, i.e. restricted by the national government. In recent years, health services in particular have been centralized. The underlying reasons deal with both equality (access to services, and service quality) and economy. In addition, in order to be able to produce and provide services to the inhabitants, the capacity of local governments has been on the agenda. Territorial reforms have been implemented in Denmark, Finland, and are being implemented in Norway. In sum, are local governments in Scandinavia really autonomous, or are they merely the implementers of national policy?

Pekka Kettunen, PhD, works as a senior lecturer of public administration at the Abo Akademi University in Finland. Dr. Kettunen’s research topics are policy analysis and evaluation, and comparative local government research. He has recently published articles in Local Government Studies, Regional and Federal Studies, Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, and Evidence & Policy.  Dr. Kettunen will be visiting NUI Galway as a part of the Erasmus Teacher Exchange (Spring 2017) programme.