Reshaping local borders in Europe today. A critical reflection founded on an analysis of the case of Finland
Journal Title: Miscellanea Geographica - Regional Studies on Development - Year 2017, Vol 21, Issue 1
Abstract
In Europe, the amalgamation of local authorities is currently used to optimize public resources. Although amalgamation involves several advantages, it needs to fulfil three conditions to be considered successful. First, address local preferences and needs; second, be fair, transparent and accessible to citizens; and third, be a compromise between central and local political elites. In the current paper the fulfilling of these three conditions is analysed using the comprehensive, bottom-up, Finnish reform introduced during the period of 2008-2013. The findings conclude that while the Finnish local reform plan has been successful in reaching a compromise between local and central governments, it has failed insofar as it has not fulfilled the condition of making the process fair, transparent and accessible to citizens. Furthermore, whether the amalgamation has allowed local government to address citizens’ preferences and needs in a meaningful and responsive way has yet to be demonstrated.
Authors and Affiliations
Albacete Xavier, Tort Joan
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP297208
- DOI 10.1515/mgrsd-2017-0001
- Views 83
- Downloads 0
Tourist function in rural areas of Poland. Spacial diversity and changing trends
This paper presents the findings of research carried out by the author, concerning the development of tourist function in the period 1995-2005. Tourist function was defined by means of two features: the number of tourist...
CHOROPLETH MAP AND DIAGRAM MAP – ABOUT MERGING METHODS OF CARTOGRAPHIC PRESENTATION
Various aspects of merging the chosen presentation methods (choropleth and diagram) on one map are discussed in the article. Attention is focused on the graphic match of both methods, on the character and reference of da...
Stream water temperature: a short review with special reference to diurnal dynamics
Dynamic changes in stream water temperature are caused by thermal energy exchange at the interface between the water and the atmosphere, and between the water and the streambed. This heat flux is the result of physical p...
Does Zipf’s law hold for Polish cities?
In this paper we study Zipf’s law, which postulates that the product of a city’s population and its rank (the number of cities with a larger or equal population) is constant for every city in a given region. We show that...
Variability in spectral characteristics of trampled high-mountain grasslands
The goal of the paper is a presentation of field remote sensing methods for the analysis of the trampled plants of a highly protected mountain meadow ecosystem (M&B UNESCO Reserve and one of the most important Polish Nat...