Review article

https://doi.org/10.31297/hkju.16.4.5

Local Governments and Health Services: How Can They be Reconciled?

Pekka Kettunen ; Senior Lecturer, Abo Akademi University, Finland

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Local government; health services; Finland; centralisation; decentralisation

Hrčak ID:

173628

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/173628

Publication date:

13.12.2016.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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