Finnish Local Government Barometer 2005: Municipal Managers

The survey focused on the project to restructure local government and local government services in Finland. Municipal managers were asked a number of questions relating to the restructuring project and its potential consequences. Opinions on the best option for a new local government model were charted. One question explored whether the present municipality structure, merged municipalities or regional areas would be the best basis for providing particular services (child day care, education, care of the elderly, primary health care, library services etc.), and who should provide these services (the municipality itself or private service providers). Municipal managers were asked for which services the citizens themselves should carry a larger financial or operational responsibility, and which services should be the organized by the central government instead of local government. They were also asked to what extent they agreed with a number of statements relating to municipalities (e.g. everyone who wants can influence decisions in his/her municipality of residence, my municipality should be merged with the neighbouring municipality or municipalities, it is better to raise municipal taxes than cut services). Views were probed on whether the municipal services had improved, got worse or stayed the same over the past two years, and what strategies would be acceptable for improving the finances of the municipality. Finally, the respondents were asked how many municipalities there should be in Finland. Background variables included the region in which the municipality was located, number of inhabitants, Rs gender and political party identification.

本次调查聚焦于芬兰地方政府及地方公共服务重组的项目。调查对象为市政管理者，他们被问及一系列与重组项目及其潜在影响相关的问题。调查记录了关于构建新型地方政府模式的最佳选项的意见。其中一个问题探讨了现有的市政结构、合并后的市政或区域是否是提供特定服务（如儿童日托、教育、养老服务、初级医疗保健、图书馆服务等）的最佳基础，以及应由谁来提供服务（市政本身或私人服务提供商）。市政管理者还被询问公民应承担更多财务或运营责任的服务类型，以及应由中央政府而非地方政府组织的服务类型。他们还被要求就一系列与市政相关的陈述发表意见（例如，任何希望影响其居住地市政决策的人都可以做到，我的市政应与邻近的市政合并，提高市政税率比削减服务更好）。调查还探讨了市政服务在过去两年中是否有所改善、变差或保持不变，以及哪些策略被认为是改善市政财政的可行途径。最后，受访者被询问芬兰应该有多少个市政。背景变量包括市政所在地区、居民数量、性别以及政治党派认同。