1 Municipal Cooperation: A Review of the Reasons and Results Paper to be presented at the PSA 65th Annual International Conference Sheffield, 30 th March – 1 st April, 2015 Panel: Local Politics 3: Inter-municipal cooperation – theory, methods and examples WORKING PAPER (first draft version): DO NOT CITE OR QUOTE WITHOUT AUTHOR’S WRITTEN PERMISSION Dr. Pekka Kettunen, Abo Akademi University, Finland Dr. Filipe Teles, University of Aveiro, Portugal Introduction It is a common phenomenon that municipalities cooperate with each other. Cooperation as such can be either voluntary, initiated by the municipalities themselves, or compulsory, demanded by the national government. One of the obvious reasons for cooperation is the insufficient size or resources to deliver services or fulfil obligations. The second is a desire to create the common tools for gaining the development factors, like funds or companies. Cooperation eventually brings about the gains of efficiency or makes it possible to deliver services. We can however assume that cooperation may also fail, cause unwarranted negative side-effects and diminish the democratic capacity of the participating municipalities. Both the organization theory and the network theory suggest that the institutional arrangements of cooperation are crucial and fragile dimensions of success through the conceived satisfaction of the participating actors. Inter- municipal cooperation varies among countries because of differences in the political and legal systems but also among the types of territories (Kuhlmann & Wollmann 2014). Functional urban areas, cross-border areas, rural areas or peripheries influence the schemes of cooperation in their particular ways. Wealth, traditions, leadership, planning system or even environmental factors affect as well the ways inter-municipal cooperation structures itself.