1 Introduction Since the 1990s regional partnerships have become a popular instrument of rural and environmental policy across Europe. This has also attracted the interest of governance scholars who consider regional partnerships to be an example of the general shift from government to governance (Bevir and Rhodes, 2003; Rhodes, 1997). The governance debate on regional partnerships has been one sided in two ways. Firstly, it shows a lack of correlation between governance as a normative prescription and governance as an empirical phenomenon (Jordan, 2008, page 29). Secondly, the role of the state as an initiator and partner in these regional partnerships has been given insufficient atten- tion (Bloomfield et al, 2001, page 510).We aim to address both issues by: (1) discussing the correlation between normative governance prescriptions and empirical manifesta- tions and (2) focusing on the role of the state as an initiator and partner in regional partnerships and its dynamics. Our interest in the role of the state in regional partnerships implies that we will confine ourselves to those partnerships that are state initiated and/or include state actors in the partnership. Pure forms of societal self-governance partnerships preclude a role for state actors and are therefore excluded from our analysis (Kooiman, 2003; Rhodes, 1996). But how do we define `the state' and `regional partnerships'? Clearly, the concept of the state is an ``elusive and contested concept'' (Flinders, 2006, page 223) meaning different things from different theoretical perspectives (Hay et al, 2006; Pierre and Peters, 2000).We have here opted for an institutional state perspective, limiting its definition to the political and bureaucratic institutions of the nation-state. A broader definition could include state-initiated regional partnerships as being part of the state and this would blur our distinction between the state and regional partnerships (Flinders, 2006). Regional partnerships can be defined as more or less stable cooper- ations between governmental, societal, and market actors from different levels, which cooperate and negotiate to deliver or implement policies in a region. The region covers, in this study, a specific geographical area that is subprovincial but covers several The changing role of the state in Dutch regional partnerships Wiebren Kuindersma, Froukje G Boonstra Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Alterra, Wageningen UR, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; e-mail: wiebren.kuindersma@wur.nl, froukje.boonstra@wur.nl Received 19 November 2009; in revised form 16 June 2010 Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2010, volume 28, pages 1045 ^ 1062 Abstract. We address the changing relationship of the state vis-a© -vis regional partnerships on issues of state policy performance, partnership legitimacy, and the role and position of the state. Theoretical expectations regarding these issues differ greatly according to whether a state-centric or a society- centric perspective is adopted. A general case study of Dutch area-based rural policy (1988 ^ 2008) reveals that changes predominantly lean towards the state-centric perspective. These changes include an increased usage of regional partnerships as state instruments, an improved democratic anchorage of regional partnerships, and a continuation of the state's privileged position. An embedded case study shows that individual partnerships can continue to develop in other directions and can institutionalise into largely self-organising partnerships. We conclude by showing that regional partnerships can serve as state instruments, provided that a certain degree of self-organisation is possible. Overregulation of regional partnerships could eventually undermine their overall performance. doi:10.1068/c09188