The Role of Cities in Nordic Regional Development Policy

Abstract

‘Modern regional policy,’ the territorially directed policies developed after WWII represent only a subset of the measures a central power may use to direct development in its territory. The larger set of policies we denote ‘Classical regional policy.’ The policies developed in Nordic countries after 1950 could not promote a limited set of cities, although ‘growth center policies’ had been attempted with some success in France and the UK. Instead, tax and subsidy structures, support for investments, and transport subsidies directed towards less populated areas were favored. We argue that this choice was a result of the political processes in the Nordic welfare states. The attempts to implement growth pole strategies in the Nordic countries are discussed and analyzed in a context where unbalanced growth between regions is generic and the alternatives available to a national power in order not to lose control over its territory are made explicit. The attempts to implement a city-based growth pole-oriented regional policy in Norway, Sweden, and Finland are summarized. We find that such an explicit policy mostly is impossible within ‘modern regional policy’, but that the pitfalls of this policy in the 1980s led to the ‘broad regional policy.’ This policy has much in common with the classical policy. However, we also found that such a policy was, to some extent, actually formulated when the location of public facilities was decided.