Styles of Inter-municipal Cooperation and the Multiple Principal Problem: A Comparative Analysis of European Economic Area Countries

Cooperation in the delivery of public services is generally framed as desirable, but it is often hindered by serious collective action problems. The article compares inter-municipal cooperation in seven countries with different institutional settings. It investigates the rules of governance characte...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Bel i Queralt, Germà, 1963-, Bischoff, Ivo, Blåka, Sara, Casula, Mattia, Lysek, Jakub, Swianiewicz, Pawel, Tavares, António F., Voorn, Bart
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/197527
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/197527
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Cooperació intergovernamental
Administració municipal
Administració local
Cooperació interterritorial
Intergovernmental cooperation
Municipal government
Local government
Interstate cooperation
Descrição
Resumo:Cooperation in the delivery of public services is generally framed as desirable, but it is often hindered by serious collective action problems. The article compares inter-municipal cooperation in seven countries with different institutional settings. It investigates the rules of governance characterizing these diverse institutional settings and assesses how they deal with the multiple principal problem. The authors find that in almost all cases, all participating municipalities are represented on the supervisory board of the cooperative entity. In contrast, in other less frequent cases cooperation is frequently managed through a different tier of local government, thus circumventing the multiple principal problem affecting inter-municipal arrangements in the other countries.