Suchergebnisse

Local governments have become more important in the integration of immigrants, constituting a local turn in integration policy. However, the empirical evidence is still limited and variation between countries is presumably high. The present paper analyses the role played by Finnish local governments in the integration process, with municipal governments being highly autonomous from a general European perspective. The paper delineates the basic features of local integration policy, i.e. who does what, and thereafter it assesses the integration plans of local governments and how they justify the current policy. A closer look at Finnish integration policy, however, suggests that state administration actually has a strong role and that most resources are being directed to integration courses administered by the labour administration of the state. What remains for the local governments is to foresee that their services are suitable for immigrants, too. There is an asymmetry between local governments, though, as immigrants mostly live in larger cities, and half of them in the capital city area. While local governments are obliged to assess their integration policies, such assessments mostly deal with outputs and the feedback of service users. In sum, only a weak local turn seems to be emerging in Finland.

Heikki Aittokoski, Onnellisten saari. Matka täydelliseen yhteiskuntaan
Helsinki: Sanoma, 2020, 358 s.

The article discusses the concepts of centralisation and decentralisation in theory. There are various criteria that can be used to assess the advantages and disadvantages of decentralisation, and the paper will discuss these. In addition, empirical examples are presented. Next the article moves on to a case study of Finland. Finland has strong municipalities in the comparative European aspect, but there are problems too. There are plenty of small municipalities which cannot carry all the responsibility by themselves; hence the national government would like to see more amalgamations. The final section discusses in more general terms how local autonomy can be combined with coordination and which new options there are. Coordinating local activities in a different way and letting the local governments take greater responsibility for the inhabitants is not easy to achieve. Local governments need enough resources and power to comply with the requirements. The national and local government ought to play together, not compete with each other. ; U radu se raspravlja o pojmovima centralizacije i decentralizacije u teorijskom smislu. Prednosti i nedostatke decentralizacije moguće je procijeniti primjenom različitih kriterija, što se u radu i čini, te se navode empirijski dokazi. Slijedi studija slučaja Finske, čije su općine snažne u usporedbi s ostalim europskim zemljama, no ipak postoje određeni problemi. Državna vlast želi veći broj spajanja jer mnogo malih općina ne može snositi svu odgovornost i teret lokalnih službi. Rad završava raspravom o mogućnostima kombiniranja lokalne autonomije i koordinacije te se predlažu neke nove mogućnosti. Nije lako postići drugačiji način koordinacije lokalnih aktivnosti te dopustiti da lokalne vlasti preuzmu veću odgovornost za građane. Lokalnoj su samoupravi potrebna određena sredstva i ovlasti kako bi mogla udovoljiti zahtjevima. Državne i lokalne vlasti ne bi se smjele natjecati, već bi morale surađivati.

The article aims at evaluating the municipal amalgamation process as a way of reforming local government, by two criteria – efficiency in service provision and level of democracy. Those issues are applied onto a Finnish case study, as amalgamation is more common in Northern Europe. The author gives a review of amalgamation studies in the world and of the extensive evaluation reports of amalgamation reform in Finland. The paper examines amalgamation policy from two perspectives – from the instrumental or goal-oriented view and from the process aspect. The findings on the relatively high number of instances of amalgamation in Finland are the following: the main process-driving factors were political parties that mostly supported the reform and the underlying urge to construct larger entities which made municipalities take part in the process. The level of efficiency in the New, amalgamated municipalities is not necessarily higher, as efficient service provision can be found both in small and large municipalities. Efficiency is more determined by the dynamics of a municipal economy while the size of a municipality alone does not make a difference. As amalgamations change the nature of local political life they affect democracy both positively and negatively. ; Članak za cilj ima evaluaciju procesa spajanja lokalnih jedinica, jednog od načina reformiranja lokalne vlasti, putem dva kriterija – prema efikasnosti u proizvodnji usluga i prema unaprjeđenju demokratičnosti. Navedeno se primjenjuje kroz studiju slučaja Finske, s obzirom da je spajanje lokalnih jedinica mnogo češće u Sjevernoj Europi. Autor Donosi pregled studija spajanja lokalnih jedinica u svijetu i opsežnih evaluacijskih izvještaja reforme u Finskoj. Rad politiku spajanja lokalnih jedinica razmatra iz dvije perspektive – instrumentalne, one orijentirane na ciljeve reforme te iz procesnog aspekta. Nalazi o Velikom broju slučajeva spajanja lokalnih jedinica u Finskoj su sljedeći. Glavne faktore u procesnom aspektu čine političke stranke koje su većinom ...

The article analyses regional policy-making in Finland. More precisely the aim is to analyse the characteristics of a specific regional organisation, the Regional Management Committee (RMC). The organisation is a tri-party cooperative discussion arena and resembles a network. The article thus begins with an overview of the governance network theory. This section of the paper closes with discussing three specific features which are argued to be shared by governance networks: autonomy, significance and informal internal relationships. The empirical analysis thereafter discusses the characteristics of the RMC, with the help of a survey. The results of the analysis are the following: the RMC was found to have some characteristics of networks, but it did not fully correspond to the definition of governance networks. It seems that the RMC, though a network, suffers from the uneven distribution of power, this applies particularly to the social and economic partners. Thus, if the RMC is supposed to be a forum for open, interactive debate, the anagement of it should more clearly emphasize the network characteristics and aim at guaranteeing an open debate. ; U radu se analizira regionalna politika u Finskoj. Cilj je istražiti karakteristike specifične regionalne organizacije: odbora za regionalno upravljanje. Riječ je o tripartitnom forumu za suradnju i raspravu koji nalikuje mreži. Prikazuje se mrežna teorija i raspravlja o tri karakteristike upravljačkih mreža, samostalnosti, važnosti te neformalnim unutarnjim odnosima. Na temelju rezultata ankete na empirijskoj se osnovi raspravlja o karakteristikama odbora za regionalno upravljanje. Rezultati empirijskog istraživanja pokazuju da to tijelo ima neke karakteristike mreža, ali nema sva obilježja upravljačkih mreža. On pati od nejednake raspodjele moći, premda ima obilježja mreže, što se naročito odnosi na društvene i gospodarske partnere u odboru. Ako se želi postići da odbor za regionalno upravljanje bude tijelo za otvorenu i aktivnu raspravu, moraju se jasnije naglasiti i ojačati njegova mrežna obilježja te osigurati uvjeti za otvorenu raspravu.

The article is an effort to analyze one particular policy-making process. The case deals with the policy of strengthening political participation in Finland. The data is based on two recent policy programs on developing democracy, the first between the years 1997-2002 & the second between 2003 & 2007. The data consists of policy documents, reports. & the parliamentary documents connected to these policies. In the first part of the article the author discusses alternative delineation of the policy-making, in other words, how policy processes usually look like. The second part is devoted to the question of policy-making & information. Policy-makers use different types of knowledge, political, economical, research & so forth when designing the policies. The third part is a study of the policy-making concerning political participation in Finland between the years 19982007. During this time period there have been three different policies & a number of measures. However, the concrete steps seem modest. The fourth part sums up the findings & connects the case study to the conceptual debate on policy-making. References. Adapted from the source document.

Author begins with a delineation of the Finnish system & thereafter moves on to analyze the dynamics of the system. The main research task is to assess the status of the regional councils in relation to the prevailing organizational structure. Although Finland has during the centuries divided into distinct regions these have not been used as a basis for either political or administrative structure. However, with the EU membership in 1995 the sub-national arena began to change, albeit within the limits of the prevailing organizational structure. The impact of the EU on the Finnish sub-national governance is considerable, but the impact intermingles with a number of domestic factors. Author is concluding that the tradition of sub-national governance in Finland is relatively weak. Therefore, the regions were more cultural entities than politico-administrative actors per se. References. Adapted from the source document.