ABSTRACT

Local government amalgamation reforms are politically demanding ventures because potential benefits are often diffuse and long term, while costs are concentrated and immediate. We investigate the role of national political actors in forming alliances and choosing policy tools in such demanding reform contexts. Empirically, we compare the Danish amalgamation reform, characterised by the use of authoritative government tools and a nationally directed amalgamation process, and the Norwegian reform, which primarily used softer tools that involved substantial autonomy at the local level. Our analysis is built on a rich set of qualitative data. We show that differences in the pro-reform alliances established by the two national governments help explain the different choices of government tools for carrying out the local government reforms. A strong pro-reform alliance, as was the case in Denmark, lent legitimacy to the use of authoritative tools.

摘要

地方政府合并改革在政治上要求很高，因为潜在利益往往是分散的和长期的，而成本是集中的和直接的。我们调查了国家政治行为者在如此苛刻的改革背景下组建联盟和选择政策工具的作用。从经验上讲，我们比较了丹麦的合并改革，其特点是使用权威的政府工具和国家指导的合并过程，以及挪威的改革，后者主要使用软工具，涉及地方层面的大量自治。我们的分析建立在一组丰富的定性数据之上。我们表明，两国政府建立的支持改革联盟的差异有助于解释执行地方政府改革的政府工具的不同选择。