ABSTRACT
The regional policy, largely oriented to specific regions in the northwestern parts of the country, has to be replaced by a flexible system for stimulation of economic growth and distribution of welfare in any kind of microregion. The spontaneous process of growing competition between regions within the country as well as across the national border with creations of strategic alliances between the stronger regions will inevitably push towards further fragmentation and widened regional gaps in living standards. Marginal regions in Sweden have for a long time been associated with sparsely populated regions, especially in the northern interior. In intermediate regions, however, the lack of strong sector administrations and the comparatively high local competence should provide for a larger extent of territorial consideration. The critical transfers of resources between regions–the comer stone in the welfare model–will be much more difficult when unemployment is hitting all types of regions harder and in more complicated ways than ever before in modern time.
