Finlandia

Abstract

The local government of Finland has been created over centuries, and its traditions go back to the period of its national relation with Sweden. In the current legal state, a province (Finn. lääni, Sw. län) is the biggest administrative unit of Finland, however, it is not a unit of local government at the same time. Therefore, there are no representational municipalities at the level of provinces. The provinces function as local units of purely administrative character. According to the premises of the reform of administrative and local structure of Finland, this unit will be liquidated in 2010. Apart from the administrative division into provinces, Finland is also divided into regions (Finn. maakunta, Sw. landskap). The regions are the areas of cooperation of local communities that form particular regions. The state is divided into 20 regions. Moreover, the territory of Finland, basically because of economic reasons, is divided into 72 sub-regions (Finn. seutukunta, Sw. ekonomisk region). A Commune (Finn. kunta, Sw. kommun) is a basic unit of local territorial division in Finland. All 348 communes (2009) have far-reaching powers including even the right to levy a tax on the income of their residents. The Finnish welfare state is mainly based on municipally produced services, whose level was significantly diversified nationally (mainly between central communes, and the communes of the north and the east), which was basically related to the finances of local governments. In order to compensate disproportions that appeared in 2005, a new program of territorial reform was prepared. Its aim was to provide skilful financing of local governments’ activity. Amongst the suggested models of the territorial reform, the chosen model opted for the increase of finances for territorial government from different sources. At the moment, the actions aiming to incorporate this model into life are being carried out.