Local Government Reforms in Denmark and Norway: Reform Tools and Outcomes

Abstract

Since 2007, both Denmark and Norway have carried out structural reforms of their local government systems. Despite many similarities between the two highly decentralized countries in the same class of local government systems, the outcome of the two reforms differed substantially. Whereas the government of Denmark achieved comprehensive structural reform of its local government system, Norway’s government was a lot less successful. Less than one third of the local governments in Norway ended up actually merging. We ask what reform tools the two governments used for implementation of their respective reforms, how these tools were used, and how tool use can explain the different outcomes. A main conclusion is that the experienced Danish government’s strong Parliamentary support facilitated the use of stronger reform tools, as compared to Norway’s less experienced minority government.