Är ny eller gammal regionalism vägen framåt?
-En kvalitativ undersökning om Ansvarskommitténs balansgång mellan demokrati- och ekonomivärden
In May 2007 a committee called ??Ansvarskommittén??, assembled by the Swedish government, came with a proposal of changing the Swedish regional structure. The committee which consisted of representatives from all the sitting parties in the parliament proposed that the present regional structure consisting of 20 county council districts and 21 counties would be reduced to between 6-9 regions called ??regionkommuner??.The purpose of this study is to analyze how the committee?s proposal balances democratic and economic values by using a qualitative method. The committee?s proposal is analyzed by a comparison in five political areas with two differentiated regional theories called old and new regionalism. These theories are described and analyzed under the assumption that the old regionalism prioritizes democratic values and the new regionalism prioritizes economic values.Furthermore, the purpose of this essay can be divided into three parts. The first part is to describe and analyze how the old and new regionalism balances democratic and economic values. The second part consists of analyzing the committees proposal with the same criteria?s as the two regionalism theories and how they balance these two values in each area. The last and most important part is to analyze and describe how the committee balances the values in a bigger picture and if any of the values seems to be prioritized.The committee?s proposal is analyzed in the same areas as the two regionalism theories and the conclusion is that the committee?s proposal is closely related to the new regionalism in three areas. One area is a combination of the two theories and the last area is not discussed. The result of this essay is that the committee?s proposal is closer related to the new regionalism since the balance between democratic and economic values seems to point towards a prioritization of the economic values.