ABSTRACT
How do municipalities on the periphery of the Nordic countries cope with problems of maintaining public services – along with overall welfare standards – in a phase of urbanization and economic restructuring? Being granted a wide responsibility for the welfare of its inhabitants, the Nordictype municipality is far more than a service bureaucracy. For decades, the leaders of rural municipalities have tried to improve the local employment situation as well as to secure services and technical infrastructure for the citizens. In a global and post-industrial economic environment, however, new challenges arise, and the smaller localities of the geographical periphery run the risk of being marginalized. At the same time, new steering modes and instruments are emerging, offering (at least in principle) more flexibility in municipal policy-making.
