How Coerced Municipal Amalgamations Thwart the Values of Local Self-Government

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6405045
AutoresGissur Ó Erlingsson (0000-0003-2323-9092, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden), Jörgen Ödalen (0000-0002-5693-940X, Mälardalen University, Vasteras, Sweden, autor de correspondencia), Erik Wångmar (Linneaus University, Växjö, Sweden)
Año2021
Volumen57
Número5
Páginas1226-1251
Fecha de publicación2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaUrban Affairs Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1078-0874 • E-ISSN: 1552-8332
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1078087420921458
OpenAlexW3026260470
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas47

Arguments invoking increased functional efficiency have had a profound impact on local government reforms in advanced democracies during the past 60 years. Consequently, most mature democracies have implemented municipal amalgamation reforms, often through top-down coercion. In this article, we demonstrate how far central governments have been willing to go, in terms of coercion, by providing an in-depth historical account of Swedish municipal amalgamations between 1952 and 1974. Debates on amalgamation reforms have typically revolved around pros and cons of mergers. But very few discussions have addressed the more fundamental moral problem of enforcing amalgamations through coercion. Often, large-scale mergers are carried through against the expressed will of municipalities who wish to remain self-governing. In this article, we present a normative defense of strong local self-government, based partly on values of individual autonomy, and partly on group-based human rights, and we show how coerced amalgamations are at odds with these values

Autonomy · Coercion (linguistics · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Local government · Normative · Odds · Political economy · Political science · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory