Opportunities for Democracy in Cross-border Regions? Lessons from the Øresund Region

Abstract

Opportunities for democracy in cross-border regions? Lessons from the Øresund Region, Regional Studies. This article critically assesses the democratic character of cross-border regions within the European Union. Cross-border cooperation could be an experimental field for the project of making the Union more democratic through transnational partnerships, especially since large parts of cross-border policy formation are done by the local and regional authorities. The article analyses the democratic state of the Øresund Region around the Sound between Sweden and Denmark. The study demonstrates that, rather than bringing spearhead ideas of democratic organization, cross-border cooperation in the Øresund Region tends to perpetuate the problem of citizen participation within the Union. The Øresund project - and comparative evidence suggests the same pattern in other cross-border cooperations within the EU - is characterized by a relatively closed network of public agencies, chaired by a few leading politicians and senior public officials. Their strategies of regional integration emphasize individual consumption instead of public participation, and their formal representative position is unsettled