The Dumbing Down of Local Democracy? Referendums and Deliberation in Norway's Municipality Reform.

Norway is currently in the throes of a municipality reform, reducing 426 municipalities to 354 by the year 2020.As a part of this process, more than 200 local non-binding referendums and citizen surveys have been undertakenwith the aim of involving the public in the decision whether to amalgamate with neighboring municipalities. Thispaper investigates the possibilities and limitations of local referendums as participatory tools and as basis fordecision-making for local elites. The use of referendums is analyzed in contrast to a deliberative model of localdemocracy which ideally would involve citizens at every stage of the political process – whereas referendumstypically brings them in only at the very end. As such, the referendum-approach is less than well suited to acomprehensive discussion of the issue at hand, thus questioning the participatory value of this approach. Theanalysis shows that the local referendums on the Norwegian municipal reform have put elected elites in a bind;while the referendums are imbued with an air of electoral legitimacy and democratic decisiveness, they are, infact, merely advisory. Thus, the local elites retain decision-making autonomy, but deciding against the apparent“will of the people” comes at potentially grave political costs. Exacerbating the local decision-makers» dilemma,is a common perception of the referendum process as emotionally driven rather than fact based – resulting inoutcomes that oversimplify a complex issue.

Til publikasjon: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4018723 | Publiseringsår: 2017 | Tidsskrift: