Local Government: Contours of the Past, Present and Future

This chapter outlines the local government in Finland. Municipalities form the basic units of the political-administrative system. They have a vital role in local infrastructure, education and economic development policy. In this chapter, we describe the development of this system with a focus on major changes in the post-war decades, and on that basis, we provide a brief introduction to the current structure, main functions and inter-governmental relations of local government. This chapter will also shed light on the contextual changes reshaping local governance, as well as their consequences, which highlight the increasing importance of digitalisation, the growing differentiation between municipalities and the emergence of novel approaches to local public governance. Lastly, we will explore the future development of Finnish local government by anchoring the discussion on the emerging platform model, which aims at the smart utilisation of local potential for the benefit of all members of the local community.