Conditions for political leadership in pluricentric Scandinavian regions

Authors

  • Eva Sørensen Roskilde University, Denmark
  • Anders Lidström Department of Political Science, Umeå University
  • Gro Sandkjær Hanssen Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v19i4.15001

Keywords:

Pluricentric governance, Regional level, Political leadership, Denmark, Sweden, Norway

Abstract

How does the increasingly pluricentric character of regional governance in Denmark, Sweden and Norway condition the political leadership of politicians elected at regional levels of government? In regional governance, politicians elected at different levels of governance compete for political leadership, and this competition is particularly intense in pluricentric regional governance arenas with a weak division of political power. In such cases, the political leadership capacity of elected politicians at regional levels of governance depends on their ability to attract regional followers and to mobilise the support and resources of strong, influential regional stakeholders. From an analysis of recent institutional reforms in the three Scandinavian countries and a literature review of the role played by politicians in regional governance in the wake of these reforms, the article concludes that Scandinavian regional governance is strongly pluricentric (with some variation), and that recent reforms have contributed to making it even more pluricentric in character.

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Author Biographies

Eva Sørensen, Roskilde University, Denmark

Eva Sørensen is professor in public administration and democracy at Roskilde University and professor II at University of Nordland. Her main research area is interactive forms of public governance with a specific focus on the role of politicians and public administrators as metagovernors of governance networks and other forms of stakeholder involvement in public governance. She has directed several externally funded large scale research projects such as ‘Towards new regions’ funded by the MOMs foundation (2006-2009) and ‘Collaborative innovation in the public sector’ (CLIPS) that was funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council (2009 - 2014).

 

Anders Lidström, Department of Political Science, Umeå University

Anders Lidström is professor and head of the Department of Political Science, Umeå University, Sweden. His research focus is on urban, local and regional politics and government, particularly in a comparative perspective. Lidström is the convenor for the ECPR standing group on local government and politics and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe (2011).

Gro Sandkjær Hanssen, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research

Gro Sandkjær Hanssen is senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (Ph.d. in political science, University of Oslo). Hanssen has broad experience in studying local and regional government. Her research interests are also multi-level governance, steering and participation in urban and regional planning. The research themes have been studied in projects about climate change adaptation, water management, spatial planning and elderly care. The projects have been financed by Ministries, KS; the Norwegian research Council and the EU’s 5th and 6th framework programs for research, and the results have been published in national and international books and journals.

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Published

2015-12-15

How to Cite

Sørensen, E., Lidström, A., & Hanssen, G. S. (2015). Conditions for political leadership in pluricentric Scandinavian regions. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 19(4), 111–130. https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v19i4.15001

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 4 (2015): Taking Stock of Regional Governance in the Nordic Countries

Section

Original Articles

License

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