The impact of demographic change on local and regional government

1Background to the Studyand some Methodological RemarksIntroductionAll European countries are facing challenges from<strong>demographic</strong> <strong>change</strong>. <strong>The</strong>se fundamental, seriousdevelopments have complex consequences for local andregional authorities. <strong>The</strong> <strong>impact</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>demographic</strong> <strong>change</strong>swill differ from city to city and from region to region. Butthey influence nearly every sphere <strong>of</strong> life: labour markets,housing markets, social security systems, infrastructure,urban/spatial planning, education, budgets and finances.Experience with the <strong>impact</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>demographic</strong> <strong>change</strong> hasengendered strategies to face these developments in anumber <strong>of</strong> countries and municipalities.<strong>The</strong> study examines local authorities <strong>of</strong> different sizes infour countries, namely the Czech Republic, Finland,Germany and Spain. It gives a first impression bydocumenting and synthesising the challenges facingmunicipalities in different European countries, in differentspatial contexts and the measures taking in response to<strong>demographic</strong> <strong>change</strong>s. Institutional settings in the fourcountries differ distinctly, e.g. in Finland all legislation isdecided by Parliament, there are no local authorities thatcan pass their own laws, although municipalities in Finlandhave considerable independence in organising, e.g., localservices. Germany, in contrast, has one <strong>of</strong> the politically andfunctionally strongest local government systems inEurope (1) with a comparatively high degree <strong>of</strong> localautonomy.<strong>The</strong> measures and case studies documented in this studyshould preferably cover the following categories <strong>of</strong>municipalities: a city with more than 500,000 inhabitants,a medium-sized city (around 50,000 inhabitants), a ruralmunicipality and a small county, although it was quitedifficult to maintain the differentiation throughout thestudy. This first approach focuses on four important policyfields:• social services,• spatial planning (especially housing and transport),• employment and social inclusion,• Local community activities.<strong>The</strong> information basis for the study is mainly an Internetdocument search (search engines, list <strong>of</strong> keywords, links).One consequence <strong>of</strong> Internet-based information inquiry isthat municipalities and projects not documented in theInternet are excluded from the survey. <strong>The</strong> second sourcewas direct contacts with experts and <strong>of</strong>ficials in the selectedcountries. Gaps in the case study documentation regardingcategories <strong>of</strong> municipalities or policy fields do notnecessarily mean that there is no project at all. <strong>The</strong>ymerely indicate that the chosen methods and instrumentsunder the given time constraints failed to capture any.All web-based documents quoted in this report weredownloaded in November and December 2005.(1) Wollmann, Hellmut, Organisational Forms and their Implication for Performance: A comparative European Perspective, Paper presented at the international colloquium on “Governance andperformance, Organisational status, management capacity and public service performance” to be held at the School <strong>of</strong> Public Policy <strong>of</strong> the University <strong>of</strong> Birmingham on March 15-16, 2004.