Local self-determination, process-focus and subordination of environmental concerns

Globalization and region enlargement has increased the emphasis of local authorities on being competitive for inward investment and taxpayers. This can lead to a subordination of environmental concerns. In order to secure environmental and other national interests, planning and regulation at supra-local level is required, especially if the local authorities have different motivations and goals from the central government. The central government policy guidelines of the Norwegian planning system and the possibility for regional state authorities to make objections are an apparatus to protect national interests in planning. However, there has been a significant change in the central government’s practice when deciding on objections by regional state authorities against municipal plans since the new right-wing Norwegian government came into power. The losers from the changed practice are the environmental interests, widely defined. The new government’s prioritization of local self-determination and planning processes rather than contents resonates with key features of neoliberalism, but also with important elements of communicative planning theory