Democratic Challenges in Inter-Municipal Settings

Abstract

Public service provision at the local level has become more fragmented, with multiple actors and organisations involved in all stages of the policy cycle. It is clear that inter-municipal cooperation has become more and more popular in many European countries. Moreover, previous research has shown that we deal with enormous complexity of various forms of collaboration institutions. This diversity is not related to how meaningful are IMC institutions in provision of local public services, but also to the forms it takes in different countries. Another common observation results from its constant evolution, which makes studying inter-municipal arrangements even more fascinating. It is not a stable phenomenon but a dynamic, constantly changing process. These features contribute to a sense of fuzzy boundaries and definitions of the phenomena under our investigation. The development of inter-municipal cooperation is only part of the wider process of the emergence of collaborative governance, and it is sometimes very difficult to separate sharply from other forms of inter-institutional interactions. Some forms of cooperation are not only inter-municipal, but are - at the same time - multi-level. In all cases there is a frequent claim further explore the impact of collaborative arrangements on democracy, accountability, and political leadership. It is usually argued that the complexities linked to democratic procedures and accountability are one of the main pitfalls of inter-municipal cooperation. Democratic concerns have been raised by several scholars, relating to the complexity of accountability and decision-making. Municipal voters delegate their power to their directly elected politicians, which in itself is a transfer of authority and, in principle, could represent a well-known academic, institutional and policy-related problem: this is a fundamental aspect of representative democracy. What is not necessarily included in representative democracy, however, is the situation where elected officials in municipal councils further delegate their authority to another board or council, which may not be elected by their voters. This panel will explore change and innovation in inter-municipal settings, where cooperation and policy networks challenge traditional models of public accountability, representation, and decision making.