Conditions for political leadership in pluricentric Scandinavian regions

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.v