The purpose of this essay is to investigate why the two Swedish municipalities of Frykerud and Östmark were the only municipalities in Värmland that were forcibly merged by the state during the ”Municipality block reform” of 1971, and whether local identities played a role in the resistance against this reform.      The study is designed as a comparative case study and builds on both history and political science to analyze the topic from a broader perspective. Based on the research situation three theoretical theses have been formulated, the durability of which will be tested in the analysis part of the essay.     The study notes that Frykeruds resistance against the ”Municipality block reform” started when the reform prevented a planned retirement home construction in the municipality. In the analytical part of the essay, the author discusses how the discontent can be interpreted as symptomatic of bourgeois centralization resistance, as well as being due to the fact that traditional, local self-government as a political subject was perceived as threatened. In Östmark, the "Municipality block reform" developed into a political struggle between the reformist Social Democrats and the "reform-skeptical" conservative parties. The battle started with disagreements over the completions of investments in the municipality.     In the analysis section, the hypotheses previously formulated have been tested, and the author also formulates a new hypothesis regarding the local communities and local identities' political role in the resistance against the "Municipality block reform".

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