Henry Bäck

Local government in Nordic big cities

Even if national differences indeed exist, similarities rather than differences come to mind when the structure of local government in the Nordic countries is considered. By ‘Nordic countries’ we refer to Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, even if Iceland generally is considered as part of the Nordic ‘family’ of countries. In this first part of the paper, we shall consider some of the similarities mentioned before, and discuss to which extent they contribute to making local government in the Nordic countries distinct from the rest of Europe (or other industrialized nations). The focus of this paper will be on aspects of historical and institutional kind. Later on we will return to the problems of policy formation or governance. One first observation in this respect may be that the differences in operational modes are larger than those having to do with the structure of local government itself.