Regional development partnerships in Sweden: Putting the government back in governance?

Abstract Regional development partnerships were introduced in Sweden in 1998 as part of a new regional policy. Here it is argued that these partnerships can provide support for the concept of governance in which the state continues to play an important role in steering the direction of policy. On the surface, as a decentralized organizational form, emphasizing inclusion of a broad range of regional stakeholders in the production of regional growth agreements/programmes, the partnerships would seem to fit a strategy of ‘letting other regimes rule’ on the part of the state. However, the central role played by the Swedish county administrative boards (the extended arm of the state in the region), suggests that the partnerships could also be a way for central government to retain control over the direction of regional development. In this way, they become an example of the state's ability to adjust to a changing environment rather than its ‘hollowing out’.