Regional entrepreneurial actions their preconditions and legitimacy

Public entrepreneurship can especially be traced and highlighted in those welfare policy areas where the state no longer is a sole actor in policy organising but where the democratic responsibilities of local and regional authorities nevertheless is increasing. The growing demands on local and regional actors and their increasing specialisation have during the past decades contributed heavily to the expansion of interactions between and outside the formal organisations to address various societal needs. As a result of such networked organising, there evolved at least two different discourses in public policy analysis which are sometimes claimed as clashing. On the one hand, that of greater policy effectiveness, and on the other – that of democratic transparency and accountability in networked society. Analysing public policy entrepreneurship in a democratic institutional context requires though consideration and integration of both of these discourses. The paper addresses manifestations and preconditions of contextually new public policy organising to implement democratically arrived goals in their local and regional contexts. It builds on a number of empirical studies from Sweden and Lithuania. The study aims at conceptualising and exploring entrepreneurial action intended to increase policy effectiveness in terms of more adequately addressing particular public needs covered by regional development programmes. The paper also addresses the entrepreneurial action from a democratic perspective, such as political responsibility and democratic accountability. In general, given the legal and democratic framework for local policy action under what preconditions do policy entrepreneurial activities evolve? How is the legitimacy of a public entrepreneurial action created? When do entrepreneurial actions result in innovative processes? How do the policy actors and especially top-political and administrative decision-makers deal with public entrepreneurship? The conclusions of the paper will provide an analytical model with structural, behavioural and institutional factors relevant in the studied contexts for collective policy entrepreneurship.