Redesigning Wealth Redistribution Systems in Local Government: A Theory-Based Stakeholder Analysis of Power Struggles Amongst Danish Municipalities

The struggle over the Danish redistribution system for reducing economic inequality between local governments has been ongoing for decades and the most recent debate concerning how to reform the system has been unusually tense. The 98 Danish municipalities have recently organized into three different coalitions combating each other as the government is about to reassess the system. In light of the recent developments in Denmark, the article analyzes the raison d'etre of the contemporary Danish redistribution system and how the three main coalitions of local governments want to adjust it. We give an introduction to the Danish redistribution system and its historical roots. We analyze similarities and differences in the three groups’ intervention theories concerning how to change the contemporary system. Although the three groups have vastly different views of how the system is supposed to be working and how they see it fit, they still agree that some level of redistribution between the municipalities is desirable. The analysis unveils how classical arguments of redistribution are mobilized in contemporary power struggles over the design of redistribution systems