Local Democracy and Government

Democracy and governance at the local and regional governmental level has been a central theme in several of our projects on inter-municipal cooperation and municipal structures over the last few years. Moreover, we have studied the consequences of inter-municipal cooperation and changes to the municipal structure on local democracy (municipal mergers following the recent Norwegian municipal structure reform). Furthermore, we have studied various local measures and schemes to strengthen local democracy.

In recent years, we have studied multi-level and co-governance in the municipal sector, and between the municipal sector and other organizations and actors within the public, private and voluntary (NGOs) sectors. For example, we have recently done a study on the county municipalities and their use of partnerships in formulating and implementing regional policies. We have also worked on the conditions for local political management and control over inter-municipal cooperation on child welfare in a co-governance perspective.

We are currently carrying out an R&D project on behalf of the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization, looking at the importance of local politicians' working conditions for motivation and recruitment, and willingness to stand for re-election. Lastly, we have just studied the experiences of carrying out meetings in local political bodies as remote digital meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic.