The role of localism in the development of regional structures in post-war Finland

Abstract

A perceived need for a wider resource base for territorial governance has initiated a new regionalisation trend throughout the developed world. Local governments are frequently opposed to such a development. This paper presents an institutional analysis of how Finland's tradition of strong localism has affected the forms, processes and results of regionalisation. The paper argues that path dependence in the form of localist influence from the mid-1990s until the mid-2010s led to an incremental development of regional structures. However, things changed in 2015 due to a historical decision by the centre-right government to establish a new tier of elected regional government. This was due to the diminished credibility of localism given the realities of contextual pressures and government's attempts to improve efficiency and competitiveness. Unless radical political surprises intervene, this will radically undermine the role of local government as a stronghold of representative localism.

How Finland copes with an ageing population: adjusting structures and equalising the financial capabilities of local governments

“…Our findings also demonstrate that state-run policies of shared services have become more dominant as the obligatoriness of inter-municipal collaboration has increased. These findings parallel some other studies that have reported strengthened state control (Kröger 2011) and statutorily increased use of cooperative municipal services (Sjöblom 2020;Anttiroiko and Valkama 2017). The Finnish municipal restructuring strategy has progressed in the opposite direction of the public choice preference associated with the advantages of inter-municipal competition, as the municipal mergers have cut down the number of municipalities, and municipal-municipal collaboration has woven local interests together.…”

“…Besides compulsory joint municipal authorities, municipalities have established some voluntary joint municipal authorities especially around local public utilities. However, the system of intermunicipal organisations has proven to be fragmentary and asymmetric (Mäkinen and Niemivuo 2014;Anttiroiko and Valkama 2017). Nevertheless, Table 3 demonstrates that the system has also had some flexibility, as the number of the joint municipal authorities has scaled up and down during previous decades.…”

Challenges for Management in Implementing Reforms at the Ministry Level and in Health and Social Service Organizations in Finland

“…Even if the reforms at the national level have not succeeded as planned, they have increased municipal collaboration when municipalities have voluntarily created several federations of municipalities for delivering the health and social services in their region. The smaller municipalities especially have sought economies of scale through service production with cooperation (Hulst and Montfort 2011;Couffinhal et al 2016;Anttiroiko and Valkama 2017).…”

“…The Finnish health and social service system is by international standards fairly decentralized. The services are typically delivered by relatively strong local governments and authorities, in other words by municipalities that may have very small populations, or larger federations of municipalities (Hulst and Montfort 2011;Couffinhal et al 2016;Anttiroiko and Valkama 2017). The municipal self-government, state welfare objectives, and, more widely, European Union policy determination or international management trends are emphasized as the context of management.…”