Conflicts and Problems in Amalgamation Reforms.

Amalgamation reforms often accompany resistance and opposition and other problem. Such reforms mean great changes for all municipalities involved – often they have had jurisdictional boundaries for a long time. So no wonder conflicts can occur (Baldersheim and Rose 2010). In their book chapter from 2016 Steiner (et al.) are investigating patterns of conflicts and related to territorial reforms in European countries. They link this with reform strategies and that different strategies cause different patterns of conflict during the implementation process. Top-down initiative initiative is said to be likely to cause resistance but a bottom-up approach more likely to avoid conflicts. Comprehensive reforms are more likely to awake conflicts and resistance while more incremental and bottom-up oriented approches are likely to mean the opposite. They even mention good knowledge and information as well as good preparations as approaches that are likely to avoid conflicts. These findings are based on so called expert-surveys among experts in 11 European countries. In my paper I would like to examine this further and look closer at how conflicts connected with two comprehensive referendums on municipal amalgamations (1993 and 2005) fit into these findings by looking at accessible data and earlier research in Iceland. I would also like to look at some other more internal factors that could have (and have) caused conflicts in the case of Iceland. Here I am referring to explanatory factors such as „perceived status/power of own municipality in the new context“, relative population size of municipalities in the context and even economic situation of the municipalities involved. Other factors might come into the picture as well. For this part I would use mainly data from Iceland and partly look at data from Sweden (Brantgärde 1974) and Denmark (Kjær 2002). Literature Baldersheim H. & Rose L. (2010). “Territorial Choice: Rescaling Governance in European States”. In: Baldersheim H & Rose L (eds.) (2010): Territorial Choice. The Politics of Boundaries and Borders (pp.1-21). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Brantgärde, L (1974). Kommunerna och kommunblocksbildningen. Göteborgs Studies in Politics 4. Göteborg. Eythórsson G T (1998). Kommunindelningspolitik i Island. Staten, kommunerna och folket om kommunsammanslagningar.[Municipal structure in Iceland. The state, the muncicipalities and the people on municipal amalgamations] Göteborg. CEFOS. Kjær, U 2002, 'Kommunesammenlægninger: Og hvor skal rådhuset så ligge?' Nordisk Administrativt Tidsskrift, bind 83, nr. 1, s. 56-73. Steiner, R, Kaiser, C, & Eythórsson, G T (2016). “A Comparative Analysis of Amalgamation Reforms in Selected European Countries”. In S. Kuhlmann & G. Bouckaert (Eds.), Local Public Sector Reforms in Times of Crisis. National trajectories and international comparisons. London: Palgrave MacMillan.