Abstract
The transition from traditional local government to more modern structures and approaches in a small state is the main focus of this chapter. The discussion points out that, Icelandic local authorities are one of the most autonomous local authorities in Europe with a high level of political and fiscal decentralisation. However, in relation to administrative decentralisation the Icelandic situation draws attention to some of the paradoxes of smallness as both individual local authorities as well as the local government system as a whole struggle to keep up with expectations in relation to administrative capacity. The chapter also highlights some of the weaknesses of weak subnational capacity in a small state with low administrative capacity on the state level. Finally, the chapter points out the special situation of Iceland as an extreme case in relation to the success of subnational governance. The discussion shows that in relation to the size of local government measured in the level of decentralisation Icelandic local authorities have much in common with the Baltic states and Central European states. However, in relation to levels of autonomy, Iceland is clearly Nordic showing similar patterns of local autonomy traditions as the other Nordic states.
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Notes
- 1.
This is with the exception of the tiny municipalities (with less than 200 residents) using a personal voting system, where people tend to stay on councils for a very long time.
- 2.
As pointed out in Chapter 4, Icelandic local governments were traditionally highly autonomous in the sense that they were able to take on tasks not assigned to other government bodies and to organise them freely. However, this was not a part of an organised decentralisation on behalf of the central government.
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Hlynsdóttir, E.M. (2020). The Choice Between Efficiency and Tradition. In: Sub-National Governance in Small States. Palgrave Studies in Sub-National Governance. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51552-2_6
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