The Striking Similarities between Northern Norway and Northern Sweden

• Author: Jonas Stein
• Pages: 121-144

Arctic Review on Law and Politics

Vol. 10, 2019, pp. 79–102

79

Peer-reviewed article

© 2019 Jonas Stein. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-

Commercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), allowing third parties to share

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Citation: Jonas Stein. “The Striking Similarities between Northern Norway and Northern Sweden” Arctic Review on Law

and Politics, Vol. 10, 2019, pp. 79–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v10.1247

*Correspondence to: Jonas Stein, email: jonas.stein@uit.no

The Striking Similarities between

Northern Norway and Northern

Sweden

Jonas Stein*

UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Abstract

Contrary to the view held by many actors, this paper, by using a quantitative and longitudinal anal-

ysis in a comparative perspective, show that demographic development in Northern Norway and

Northern Sweden is much more similar than many think. Over the last 60 years, there has been

a small negative trend in the relative percentage of the national population that lives in the two

regions, with “knowledge cities”, and especially the two university cities Tromsø and Umeå, as the

exception. Despite Broxian social theories of regional development in Northern Norway and the

implementation of a generous set of regional policies, there seems to be no cause to claim that

Northern Norway has followed a unique path of development compared to Northern Sweden,

neither in general nor in smaller and more rural communities.

Keywords: regional policy, Arctic, Norther n Norway, university, municipalities

Responsible Editor: Øyvind Ravna, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø,

Norway

Received: April 2018; Accepted: March 2019; Published: March 2019

1. Introduction

Many politicians1, scholars2 and regional actors have proclaimed that Norway’s

regional policies in Northern Norway have succeeded extremely well. Since the

mid-1970s Norwegian authorities have implemented generous policies for regional

1 Kjell Werner, “Helga satser på by og land,” FriFagbevegelse, https://frifagbevegelse.no/

article-6.158.52638.bdb95fa104.

2 Ottar Brox, Hva skjer i Nord-Norge? (Oslo: Pax Forl., 1966).

Jonas Stein

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development aimed at maintaining a dispersed population in Northern Norway. Of

interest in this paper is to assess the aims of these different policies and their actual

effect on regional development. In 2016 the Norwegian government spent around

12 billion NOK on specic policies aimed at regional development in Northern Nor-

way (Finnmark, Troms and Nordland counties). In comparison, Sweden through

European Union structural funds, spent around 0.3 billion NOK on regional devel-

opment in Northern Sweden (Västerbotten and Norrbotten counties). Norway and

Sweden share a multitude of common social, cultural and political factors, making a

most similar case design comparison a fruitful methodological approach.

The idea of a unique path for Northern Norway is rooted in the ideas of Ottar

Brox.3 His early works on Northern Norway are considered some of the most

important works of nonction in Norway since 1945.4 They have heavily inuenced

policymaking in Northern Norway, resulting in important differences in those poli-

cies geared toward regional development and those promoting dispersed settlement

in the north. There are many structural similarities between Northern Norway and

Northern Sweden. At the regional level, there are important similarities, like the

establishment of universities in the North and similar universal welfare systems

administered at the municipal level.

However, there are also some important differences in regional policies between

Norway and Sweden, and according to Broxian theories, these differences should

have led to more positive development in Northern Norway. First, the Norwegian

people chose to stay outside the European Union twice; national referendums were

held in 1972 and 1994. A major factor for voters was to maintain national sover-

eignty over policies for regional development.5 Second, Norway has implemented

regional policies that include regionally differentiated payroll taxes on employees,

with an extra contribution for municipalities in Northern Norway6 and individual

level tax cuts for people living in the special zone. Third, Norway has also cho-

sen to maintain a large number of small municipalities compared to Sweden. These

differences have led Norwegian politicians, including two former ministers, Trygve

Slagsvold Vedum7 and Helga Pedersen,8 to claim that Norway, through its regional

policies, has been much more successful in keeping a dispersed population structure

than its neighboring countries, especially in the High North. The question is; is there

cause to claim that Northern Norway has followed a unique development path com-

pared to Northern Sweden?

3 Ibid.; Nord-Norge: Fra allmenning til koloni (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1984).

4 Morten Strøksnes, “Nordlands profet,” Dagbladet, 30.07. 2008.

5 Henry Valen, “Norway: ‘No’ to EEC,” Scandinavian Political Studies 8, no. A8 (1973).

6 Erik Oddvar Eriksen, “Det nye Nord-Norge: avhengighet og modernisering i nord,” in

Avhengighet og modernisering i nord, ed. Erik Oddvar Eriksen (Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 1996).

7 Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, “Sentraliseringen er blåkopi,” Nationen, 12.08.2015 2015.

8 Werner, “Helga satser på by og land”.