ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Danish regional policy has changed dramatically. This chapter examines the transformation of regional policy in Denmark from the perspective of political decentralization and Europeanization in order to establish to what extent recent changes have increased the capacity of Danish regions to pursue their own agendas with regard to economic development. It explores the organizational strategies pursued by various tiers of government in this process of rapid and profound policy change. The chapter provides a brief outline of the analytical framework, based primarily on contributions from traditions within policy analysis, network theory and the new institutionalism. Regional policy in Western Europe started out as national-level measures to promote economic development in 'problem regions', primarily through financial incentives to private firms. In the 1990s the termination of the regional support schemes of central government will have left a policy void in the peripheral regions that could be at least partly filled by sub-national actors.
