<p>The purpose of this essay is to present, from a theoretical framwork about regional democracy, possible methods to handle the regional democratic problems in Östergötland in Sweden and to investigate the opinion of the political parties regarding this issue. Both the national and the local/regional level are investigated. The contents of the essay is based on literature studies and interviews of politicians in Östergötland. Regional democratic problems that is discussed are the political responsibility and the power distribution between the political actors on the regional level. A solution of the problem could be to organize the regional society structure in accordance with one of the following organization models"Statligt regionalt ansvar","Kommuner i samverkan"or"Regionalt folkstyre". The result of the study indicates that the Centre Party, the Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party can accept the model namned"Regionalt folkstyre". The Moderate Party has another political opinion that coincide with the model"Kommuner i samverkan". The opinion of the Social Democratic Party does not fully correspond to any of the defined models. A compromise model supported by all parties might give good opportunities for a stable and successful development of the region.</p>

The purpose of this essay is to present, from a theoretical framwork about regional democracy, possible methods to handle the regional democratic problems in Östergötland in Sweden and to investigate the opinion of the political parties regarding this issue. Both the national and the local/regional level are investigated. The contents of the essay is based on literature studies and interviews of politicians in Östergötland. Regional democratic problems that is discussed are the political responsibility and the power distribution between the political actors on the regional level. A solution of the problem could be to organize the regional society structure in accordance with one of the following organization models"Statligt regionalt ansvar","Kommuner i samverkan"or"Regionalt folkstyre". The result of the study indicates that the Centre Party, the Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party can accept the model namned"Regionalt folkstyre". The Moderate Party has another political opinion that coincide with the model"Kommuner i samverkan". The opinion of the Social Democratic Party does not fully correspond to any of the defined models. A compromise model supported by all parties might give good opportunities for a stable and successful development of the region.