Abstract
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Amalgamations of Local Government Units: mechanisms and outputs
Amalgamations of municipalities as a tool of capacity building are a highly debated issue in both dimensions - economics and democracy. (Dhal, Tufte 1973, Newton 1982, Keating 1998, Larsen 2002, Dollery, Crase 2004) Countries that practice the dual system of local government (mostly European protestant countries and areas) continue consolidation to meet the increasing demands of welfare developments. The latest examples are Denmark, Latvia and Finland. However, research has not yet focused on the other dimension, i.e. on the mechanisms and process of reforms. (As exceptions: Vojnovic 2000, Aalbu et al 2008, McKay 2004).
Amalgamations are not simply territorial reconfigurations and also not ordinary PA reforms. Amalgamations can produce a very profound reorganization of the power vertical which, on one hand, makes it politically a very sensitive and complex reform. On the other hand, as soon as local authorities are in this area protected by laws against political and administrative intervention, reforms must rely on patterns of interactive reform-making. Thus, these reforms are among the most complicated and edifying ones in terms of politico-administrative devices of reform planning and organization (networks) of reform implementation.
Our study is based on an empirical study of recent amalgamations in Estonia and Latvia. The former was a completely voluntary bottom-up reorganization which resulted in six large municipal areas. The latter was a top-down reform carried out in a similar institutional context which resulted in reorganization of the power vertical and formation of large area (service) based municipalities. The empirical comparative study will be paralleled with similar reforms and reorganizations in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Canada. The framework for the analysis was described in an article presented to the EGPA annual conference in Malta in 2009 (Sootla, Kattai 2009), including the following: the characteristics of top-down and bottom-up reforms; political vs. technical characteristics of the reform concept and rhetoric; patterns of participants, understanding of a transition period etc.
The basic aim is to reach an in-depth understanding of different patterns of reform organization in terms of achieving expected outcomes vs. failing to achieve them. (See: Temmes, Sootla, Laijavaara 2004)
The empirical study and method development were carried out in Estonia in 2009 within the framework of the project launched by the Estonian Ministry of the Interior. The project has been scheduled for 2009-2010. The replication logic and embedded case study method were applied to research design and analysis of the amalgamation process. The case study was paralleled with a survey (N=140) in Estonia to test the main hypotheses that were formulated based on the case study findings. Also, feedback seminars were used to verify the findings of the case analysis. The methodology will be applied to the Latvian case in fall and winter of 2009-2010.
Currently, the collection of official documents, evaluations and analyses in national languages of the above seven nations has been completed and a team with knowledge of the languages is about to start analyzing and generalizing the sources.
The article is part of a more extensive project aimed at studying in depth the impact of the reform process specifics to its main outcome - formation of a new structure of institutional actors at the local level.
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