ABSTRACT
The political and administrative unit in Norway equivalent to the regional level in the European Union and its member states is the county. This chapter begins with an introduction to the role of the regional, that is, county level, and its historical roots in the Norwegian political and administrative system. It shows how the membership negotiations between Norway and the European Union in 1994 were an impetus for change in the content and strategy of the Norwegian regional policy. The chapter argues that the supra-state integration and sub-state regionalization that European countries have experienced over the past ten years particularly have caused a change in Norwegian rural and regional policy instruments from a centralized and territorial to a decentralized and functional approach. A new time of growth in local self-government came in the years 1940-60 but after this, the national level once again strengthened its position versus the local level of government by focusing on the regional level.
