Projektets syfte samt eventuella ändringar i syftet under projektperioden
The overall aim of the project has been to generate theoretical and policy-relevant knowledge from a democratic theory perspective of how the last two decades' enhanced focus on the output side of the political system has influenced and changed the functions, roles, autonomy and values of Swedish local government officials over the last 35 years. In comparison to the original research proposal, a greater focus has been placed on senior officials at the local government level (hereafter referred to as officials) than professional groups in municipalities.
Projektets tre viktigaste resultat och ett resonemang om dessa
Key findings of the project can be summarized under three concepts: dispatching (of roles), meritocratization (of values), and juridification (of functions).
Dispatching: An overall difference in officials’ roles in 2016, as compared to 1980, is that today's officials to a higher degree than their predecessors bear the likeness of train dispatchers. Officials of today perceive their work as more regulated than their colleagues of the past, hence the resemblance with train dispatchers. They coordinate, redirect, set forth and put a stop to various processes based on several concurrent and parallel control and management trends as; the implementation of more amplified line management models at local governmental level, reinforced central government regulation and control of local government activities, intensified demands from municipal members as consumers of welfare services/bearers of individual rights, and increased interaction with the media. Or, in other words, tasks conducted by officials have become more and more boxed in. Financial frameworks have become stiffer, national regulations of individual rights have become more frequent, and in combination with the implementation of line management and control and audit systems these reforms and measures have become limiting for officials and consequently reduced their discretion. In their role as dispatchers, officials of today appear to be more compliant to decisions made by local politicians within local governments. However, at the same time they also express positive attitudes to increased national regulations and control activities. This finding links to the second key finding of the project, meritocratization.
Meritocratization. The general level of education among senior officials is today much higher than in 1980. Officials are to a greater degree recruited on their merits, which is indicated by the increased amount of women among officials in management positions at local government level. This shift towards a more meritocratic public administration has over the last 35 years been reinforced by new public management-inspired reforms and related audit activities that have moved focus from the input to output side of the political system, generated a transfer of powers from politicians to managers, bureaucratized professions and enhanced accountability at the expense of responsibility. These tendencies of meritocratization have, taken together, changed how officials perceive the decision-making ability of the three key actors of representative democracy: the people, the representatives, and the public administration. A substantially greater proportion of today's officials, as compared with those in 1980, advance the idea that they ought to have more decision-making powers. Further, officials are to a low degree convinced that the people and even more so politicians have the knowledge necessary to make qualitatively sound decisions. This development could be regarded as problematic since officials in a democracy, at least theoretically, are presumed as subordinated to democratic decision-making. National regulations and performance scrutiny of local government activities reduce municipalities and local politicians room for maneuver and thereby their ability to circumscribe officials’ discretion which links meritocratisation to the third and final key finding of the project, juridification.
Juridification. New Public Management have, contrary to the reforms' fundamental ideas of decentralisation and competition as mechanisms for improvement of quality and efficiency, brought about an expansion of national regulation and audit systems that takes on a legal terminology and framing which is here defined as juridification. This is certainly true for education and eldercare that constitute some of the most extensive and expensive welfare services for which the municipalities are responsible. In these areas, legislation now more strictly regulates an increasing number of issues, and issues that were not previously regulated are now framed in legal terms. This tendency of juridification is evident in the research project's case studies and, not the least, in how administrative officials think about and perform their work. Structures and routines to manage the juridification have been established in the three case municipalities, staff has been recruited or rearranged and in many cases been subjected to juridical staff training programs. Matters managed through the new functions concern, for example, documentation and reporting of service quality and results to politicians and citizens, and – not the least – expectations and complaints from citizens who are acting on their individual behalf.
Nya forskningsfrågor som har genererats genom projektet
So far, the results emanating from the project pinpoint several areas where an advanced knowledge would be of scientific and policy relevant value. Two of these areas, will briefly be outlined.
Dispatching, meritocratization and juridification can be seen as conceptualisations and explanatory factors behind some of the problems the Swedish governmental trust delegation has been missioned to deal with. However, even though the intent with the delegation is to promote trust-based management by supporting and identifying projects and measures that have the potential to improve conditions for development and learning are counteracting trends present in public policy-making.  The ongoing commercialization and fragmentization processes of public services are accompanied with an increased demand for additional national regulation, control and performance scrutiny activities.  Against this background it would be of interest to advance our knowledge of how the relation between national and local goverments will devolop, within different policy areas.
Dispatching, meritocratization and juridification affect values maintained and work methods applied by public officials at local government level. Together these trends have the potentiality to change, redefine and alter political-administrative systems at local, national and international level in ways that affect how different groups in society perceive what democracy is and thereby also how they asses measures taken and decisions made by political representatives and public officials. Against this background it would be of interest to investigate how and to what degree these trends are also present at national and international level as well as to advance our knowledge of how dispatching, meritocratization and juridification affect the support for political-administrative systems among different groups in society.
Projektets internationella förankring
The project has been represented in the local government research network within the European union the so-called COST Action LocRef as well as in the Nordic local government research network, NORKOM.  The project was responsible for a panel at the International Research Society for Public Management in Canada. Further, the project has collaborated with the project Legitimacy by performance (Nord University) and in the final phase of the project cooperation with a sister project Kommunernes administrative lederskab anno 2016 (Aalborg universitet) has been initiated, a cooperation that will continue after that the project is formally closed. In addition the project has been represented on several international conferences such as EGPA, IRSPM, Nispasee and COST Action LocRef.
Forskningsinformativa insatser utanför vetenskapssamhället
In addition to presentations within the scientific community, results from the project have been presented at conferences addressed to governmental and local authorities arranged by the university (e.g Förvaltningshögskolans dag), interest organisations (e.g STAREV, SKL) and governmental authorities (e.g IVO, ESV, Riksrevisionen, Statskontoret)
Projektets två viktigaste publikationer samt ett resonemang om dessa
The most important and comprehensive publication ”Municipal officials… (working title)” will be published by Studentlitteratur 2017. In the book the main conclusions from the project are presented and analysed based on the study’s theoretical framework (see previous section). The three trends dispatching, meritocratization and juridification interact and reinforce each other in such a way that the officials of today more and more resemble their severely criticised colleagues from the 70s. However, the perspective and the focus of the criticism are slightly different. In the 70s the criticism of public officials and red tape was mainly put forward by researchers and public debaters from a citizen and democratic perspective (trust between the people, the representatives and public officials) while the criticism of today mainly is put forward by the scientific society, the government and professions, from a efficiency and quality perspective rather than a democratic perspective (trust within and between national and local governmental authorities, management and professions)
An other publication of interest is the article ”What if performance measurement engenders distrust” in which the argument that auditing and control activities can give different results in high and low trust societies, is put forward and discussed based on empirical observations. New (today rather Normal) Public Management inspired reforms with focus on internal and external result based management systems in combination with an increased private production of publicly financed service have contributed to an institutionalisation of distrust trough an extended application of performance scrutiny and control systems. In high trust societies performance management systems tend to generate distrust, rather than building trust in three ways; by the deterioration of service quality, by a perceived deterioration of service quality and by a diminishing power to act pro-active.
Projektets publiceringsstrategi samt kommentarer till denna.
The publishing strategy of the project has been and is to present results form the project in journals, chapters and reports in Swedish and English as well as to present the main results of the project in a monograph in Swedish. Further, additional texts will be published after that the project is ended. The majority of the scientifically assessed texts are available as open access on internet (see htttp links – publications list).