Extensive decentralisation - but in the shadow of hierarchy

Abstract

The Nordic countries are classified as Social Democratic welfare states. They are unitary states with strong local government capacities. In the Nordic model the two spheres of government are integrated and responsibilities are divided between different levels of government in flexible ways. The system is decentralised with local government providing most of the welfare services, but with significant regulation from the national governmental level. Norway has 428 municipalities. Each municipality has an average of 11,000 inhabitants, but the majority is small with more than half of them having fewer than 5000 inhabitants. There have been several initiatives to merge municipalities into larger entities, but few of them have succeeded. Smaller municipalities prefer instead to base services provision by the use of inter-municipal cooperation.