What about the local views? : A study on Swedish municipalities interactionswith higher tiers of governments

Sammanfattning: Despite twenty-five years of membership in the European Union (EU), academic contributionsfor understanding a possible impact of the EU membership on Swedish municipalities hasshined with their absence. Thus, municipalities make up a largely un-explored character in thefield concerned with European integrational aspects. The issue of how the EU affects a memberstate has hitherto been biased to the usage of a top-down lens and has mainly focused oncomprehending larger institutional bodies. This thesis takes its point of departure from thisdelivered criticism, by contributing to the burgeoning literature on how municipalities act andinteract with higher tiers of government in a multi-level governance system. Assessing the caseof four municipalities residing in northern Sweden this thesis offers insights into howmunicipalities interact using intergovernmental relations with the Swedish national governmentand the EU through a creation and implementation of strategies for advocating territorialinterests. By conducting interviews, the thesis confirms that a wide array of intergovernmentalrelations or interactions are used in order for promoting ‘northern positions’ to both a nationaland European level. A pattern shows that advocacy actions from subnational actors are directedvertically, while at the same time coordinated horizontally. Individual actors, mainly electedlocal politicians, plays a rather central part in these actions, by using a party channel foradvocating local views. In conclusion, this thesis reveal amongst all that the EU has in factimpacted municipalities in northern Sweden by creating incentives for them to advocate theirinterests towards the central government.