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En studie av legitimitetsfaktorerna för svenska regionsammanslagningar
RegionalisationNeo-RegionalisationDiscourse AnalysisCarol Lee BacchiMerging of RegionsRegionaliseringNyregionalismDiskursanalysCarol Lee BacchiRegionsammanslagningar
The purpose of this study is to ? through a discourse analysis ? examine how the parliamentary committee ? Ansvarskommittén ? legitimizes the need for merging administrative regions. The committee?s investigation is what underlies the present debate on regionalisation and the merging of regions in Sweden. To carry out this discourse analysis, I have used ?What?s the problem represented to be??, by Carol Lee Bacchi as an analytical framework. The analytical framework aids the examination on how political parties construct problems through the solutions they propose. After carefully examining the final dictum of Ansvarskommittén, this study concludes that the committe?s investigation legitimizes the merging of regions primarily through three discourses. First, it is being legitimized through Neo-Regionalism which is also a component in the remaining two discourses. The second discourse is Europeanization that is intended to adapt the regions to the regional standards of the European Union. The third discourse is the financial growth discourse and is intended to maintain the financial growth and competitiveness of regions against other regions. Consequently, the regions are given the responsibility of the state?s wealth instead of the state being responsible for the wealth of the regions as seen in traditional welfare states.