Abstract
This article takes the standpoint that, due to high levels of uncertainty, local economic development work suffers from both input- and output-based legitimacy. Nevertheless, local governments are active development agents and try to come up with economic development initiatives. In order to better understand the legitimate basis for uncertain economic development work, this article offers an unconventional analysis of economic development projects. Drawing on scholars of organization theory, legitimacy is defined as congruence in values between the studied projects and the stakeholders in the surrounding environment. The article examines what kinds of values pervade local governments’ economic development projects. The empirical material is based on thick interview and observation data derived from a study of eight local development projects in Sweden. The results show that values of professionalization and deliberation pervade the analysed projects. Taking the two sets of values together, the results indicate that local government administration seeks to legitimize its economic development work as being based on professional directed processes of public deliberation. Both these sets of values challenge the local representative democratic system of government as the prime source of the legitimacy of local governments’ interventions.
Highlights
Due to high levels of uncertainty, local governments’ economic development work has an unclear basis for legitimacy
This is achieved through an empirical exploration of which values pervade local economic development projects in Swedish local government
Drawing on scholars of organizational theory, legitimacy is defined in terms of congruence in values, in this case between local development projects and stakeholders, both within and outside the local government administration
Summary
Due to high levels of uncertainty, local governments’ economic development work has an unclear basis for legitimacy. Drawing on scholars of organizational theory, legitimacy is defined in terms of congruence in values, in this case between local development projects and stakeholders, both within and outside the local government administration. By exploring the values that pervade Swedish local governments’ economic development initiatives, this article aims to make a substantial contribution to that research question.
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