Collaboration Agreements for the Provision of Services at Local Level in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper analyzes collaboration strategies for the
provision of services at local level in the municipalities
of Spain, United States and Norway. It focuses on the
importance of these strategies and how they are
carried out in the cases mentioned, as well as the role
that various factors play in such strategies. For this
purpose, attention is paid to elements of the social,
economic and political dynamics of the municipality,
but also to the institutional design elements which
shape the position that local authorities occupy in the
intergovernmental system in each case. This requires
an analytical approach at two different levels, which
we call meso and micro respectively. The meso level
concerns institutional design elements that operate in

the municipality as a determining factor in the
collaboration models, whilst the micro level deals with
those elements located in local political society that
determine the local authorities’ opportunities for
carrying out their strategies.