From party politics to governing instruments: an analysis of letters of allocation to the Norwegian and Swedish heritage agencies

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, heritage researchers have investigated the relationship between heritage and politics from various theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary angles. While much of this research has focused on international heritage governance, the results have highlighted that we need to reexamine the relationship between heritage organizations and politics at national level. Yet few studies have looked at the instruments used to transact authority between the political level of government and the state agencies that coordinate national heritage sectors. This article examines this relationship in Sweden and Norway. By intertextually analysing governing parties’ political programs and ‘letters of allocation’ issued from the government to heritage agencies, combined with a survey on the perceptions of civil servants, we show how these letters can serve as policy space where transactional authority can be practiced. The genre and political signals in the letters indicate that heritage governance in Norway is more politically responsive than in Sweden, and that governance reform is more successfully transacted through this governing instrument than heritage polices.