Regional industrial policy and the new agenda for growth: the case of North Jutland

Even though the structural reform of the Danish administrative three-tier system in general implies a centralisation of the policy decision-making process, centralisation may not apply entirely to the field of industrial policy as the result of the implementation of the new national law on industrial development. Describing the implications of the law in terms of the changes of the regional setting for industrial policy and the ensuing focus on a new agenda for growth, the paper devotes its attention to the region of North Jutland that has been designated as a test case for the organisational intentions of the law. It is argued that while the law aims at simpli-fying the organisational setting of industrial policy, to some extent in order to avoid goal con-flicts on policy, the practical experiences so far with the raison d’être of the law indicates a process of forming broad regional policy coalitions rather than centralising the decision mak-ing power. However, since the political bodies involved in industrial policy will become fewer, more powerful and more focussed on industrial policy, goal conflicts are likely to oc-cur in the future.