SJPA Special Issue Introduction: Providing ’Hard’ Local Government Services in a Multi-Level, Multi-Actor System

Introduction In all Nordic countries, local government is the prime provider of public services to citizens and local communities. Predominant in terms of budgets and work force are ‘soft’ services, including school and pre-school education, and health and social services. For instance, in Norwegian municipalities these represent approximately 75 per cent of total spending (2015). In comparison, ‘hard’ services such as water supply, sewage disposal, waste management, housing and road construction/maintenance constitute a much smaller proportion of municipal budgets, about 10 per cent (2015). In Sweden, the corresponding figure is approximately seven per cent. Although the proportion of ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ services varies across Nordic countries, the big picture is the same: ‘soft’ services consume most of the budget and workforce. However, given that several ‘hard’ services are provided through municipal or inter-municipal companies, they are not necessarily included in municipal budgets, and are hence viewed as a smaller part of local government activity than is actually the case. For example, although Norway’s electricity supply is primarily provided by companies owned by and paying substantial dividends to local government, it is not formally registered as part of local government. Some ‘hard’ municipal services are entirely financed by user fees in accordance with the principle of cost recovery financing, thus ‘protecting’ them from yearly competition for budget funds in municipal councils. Although included in the regular municipal budgets, a shielded economic position such as this probably reduces political attention and controversies concerning these ‘hard’ services. The composition of tasks at the local and regional government levels varies somewhat across Scandinavian countries. At the regional level, for instance, the proportion of ‘hard’ services in Norway is higher than in Denmark and Sweden. In Norway (2015), public transport is the second largest activity of Norwegian counties, representing 33 per cent of the budgets (compared to 48 per cent for upper secondary schools/high schools), whereas in Sweden it accounts for only 9-10 per cent. Health care is the dominant regional sector in both Denmark (Økonomiog Indenrigsministeriet, 2014) and Sweden, but in Norway this responsibility was transferred from the regional to the national government level