Swedish Local Governments Research Articles

Between continuity and change: A longitudinal analysis of Swedish local government digitalization strategies

The terminology associated with the use of information and communication technologies in the public sector has shifted over time, from information technology to digitalization. This change raises the question of whether corresponding shifts in government practices have accompanied it. To investigate this issue, we use topic modeling to analyze a corpus of IT- and digitalization strategies from Swedish local governments, produced over three decades. Our analysis reveals salient topics covered in these strategies and classifies them, displaying patterns of both continuity and change. Some of these patterns reflect dominant discourses about technological governance and the provision of digital services based on citizens’ needs, but there is also a notable absence of content related to democracy and participatory practices. Taken together, our study contributes empirically with an evolutionary perspective on digital government strategies and methodologically with the adoption of computational methods for this purpose.

Paradiplomacy and international conflict: disengagement from China by Swedish local governments

This article analyzes the development of paradiplomatic relations between subnational governments in China and Sweden. The empirical material comprises official documents, media reports, and interviews, and correspondence with local decision makers. Following steady growth in the 1990s and 2000s, the number of paradiplomatic agreements between the two countries declined dramatically at the end of the 2010s. To our knowledge, this extensive “local decoupling” is unprecedented, at least in the history of modern paradiplomacy between Europe and China. The decline can primarily be explained by three interrelated factors: worsening bilateral relations between Sweden and China, growing Swedish concern about the human rights situation in China, and the lack of activity in some of the cooperation projects. Rather than pursuing goals such as peacebuilding and economic benefit, generally described as the main drivers behind local governments’ international activities, several subnational governments in Sweden deemed it appropriate to terminate cooperation with their Chinese counterparts due to other concerns. This development demonstrates the usefulness of a more constructivist perspective of paradiplomacy.

Explaining variations in the implementation and use of e-petitions in local government

E-petitions constitute a promising method of increasing public participation and engagement in government processes. However, there is a lack of knowledge of why some government entities implement e-petitions, while others do not. Moreover, it is unknown why some organizations may receive many e-petitions while others receive relatively few. Thus, in this paper, we aim to fill these gaps by investigating the implementation and use patterns of e-petitions based on data from Swedish local governments. Through statistical analysis of data related to demography, economy, technology, and democracy, our findings unveil variations in municipalities’ implementation of e-petitions and citizens’ use of them. The results reveal that municipalities with a relatively large population and established modes of local democracy are more inclined to implement e-petitions than smaller jurisdictions. However, we also found that the number of incoming e-petitions per capita is negatively correlated with population size. Thus, the presence of institutionalized work structures related to local democracy is an important precursor for the implementation of e-petitions, while previous experience with communication technologies had a positive effect on the number of incoming petitions. In addition to these findings, the novelty of our study lies in the use of several official data sources to seek explanations for the implementation and use of e-petitions in local government. By doing so, this study has paved the way for similar research in other contexts. The paper concludes with implications for both research and practice as well as suggestions for future studies.

Geographical Tensions Within Municipalities? Evidence from Swedish Local Governments☆

AbstractWhen Sweden transformed its geography of local government in 1952 and 1962–1974, the number of municipalities was reduced from 2,498 to 278. The reforms were infused by the “central place theory,” which aimed to identify a larger town as the “local capital” (centralort) for each municipality. The centralort became the municipalities' political and administrative center, responsible for providing public services to surrounding settlements. Taking our point of departure in this historical legacy, as well as the literature on “geographies of discontent,” we ask whether there are geographical tensions within today's Swedish municipalities. Are there differences in satisfaction, trust, and views on the future of one's place of residence when comparing the centralort with its surrounding settlements? Using two datasets—Statistics Sweden's citizen survey carried out in 241 municipalities and Trustbarometer in 49 municipalities—we find that citizens in the centralort are more satisfied with democracy than those in peripheries, where individuals residing in the municipalities' most rural parts are the most dissatisfied. Moreover, different issues are perceived as more pressing and salient in the centralort compared to surrounding settlements.

What’s so Social about Facebook? Distant Reading of Swedish Local Government Facebook Pages, 2010-2017

ABSTRACT Social media, particularly its more social aspects, can be challenging for organizations. In this article local governments’ communication on Facebook is used as a case study and analyzed through a mixed methods approach, utilizing distant and close readings of 50,000 Facebook posts from 23 Swedish local governments. The aim is to investigate patterns in both content and style with a particular focus on social interaction, drawing on a neo-institutional approach and the idea that communication can play an explicit social function. The findings suggest that local governments used Facebook mainly to inform citizens, whereas dialogue and discussion were directed elsewhere. When local governments translate social media into practice, it seems to be done in line with established channels and ways of communicating. These findings underline the need to understand local governments’ use of social media in relation to concepts such as openness and control, where attempts are made to control an uncontrollable online environment. Another key finding is that local governments seemed to post when there was very little or nothing to say; they posted about the mundane, trivial, and ordinary. These findings indicate an adaptation of the language and discourse of social media which contrasts with bureaucratic language.

Governing for Child-Friendliness? Perspectives on Children as Users Among Swedish and Danish Urban Open Space Managers

Despite the acknowledged importance of outdoor environment quality in supporting children’s health and well-being, little is known about how contemporary urban open space management caters for children. In this study, Swedish (n = 54) and Danish (n = 25) local governments were surveyed regarding how they manage urban open space for children, e.g., through a child-centered perspective which might include children’s perspectives (participation and governance approaches). The results revealed organizational differences and more active consideration of children as urban open space users in Sweden than in Denmark. A general ambition to increase children’s participation was reported, but also associated challenges, including budget limitations and lack of knowledge among managers. More ambitious and child-centered urban open space management units work collaboratively and broadly, through governance processes. This includes going beyond conventional structures and perceptions of what are “places for children” and consider all levels of strategic management (policy, tactical, and operational) in developing child-friendly environments within urban open spaces. The large differences between various management units indicates the importance of individual employees’ knowledge and dedication, and the value of exchanging knowledge and experiences.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Swedish Local Governments on Facebook: A visualisation of communication

Abstract Facebook has become an essential channel for local governments to convey information and interact with citizens, and communication on the platform has been studied intensively through a range of smaller case studies in various countries. By looking at the development of Swedish municipalities’ Facebook usage between 2009 and 2017, this article attempts to frame such use in a longitudinal perspective. Based on more than 85,000 posts from 38 Swedish local governments, the findings show that most municipalities have adapted to an online visual culture, using photos and videos “to go viral”. The findings also show large increases in interactions, such as sharing and liking, whilst commenting appears to lag behind. It also shows that local government Facebook pages retain a strong, yet decreasing, tie with government web pages, visible through a tendency of the Facebook page to recycle information from the web page.

The Role of the Weighted Voting System in Investments in Local Public Education: Evidence from a New Historical Database

In this paper, we analyze how a weighted voting system introduced in 1862, which shifted the distribution of political power from landowners to industrialists at local town meetings, affected investments in local public education. We use an event study design based on a newly constructed panel data set with annual observations of nearly 2,200 Swedish local governments over 28 years, i.e., more than 60,000 observations. Most importantly, there is no pre-trend in educational spending in our event study but rather a sharp change in the dynamic treatment effects exactly at the date when the treatment occurs, i.e., when industrialists receive more political power at town meetings. The estimated cumulative treatment effect is also economically substantial. For example, per capita spending on education increased by approximately 37% within 6 years in local governments where industrialists came to political power. Our findings are therefore consistent with the idea that political institutions are a key determinant of human capital accumulation and long-run economic development.

Resource allocation and capital investment practice in Swedish local governments: A messy business

We examine capital investment practice for large infrastructure projects undertaken by local governments. Our study contributes to the existing literature by addressing the field theoretically from both decision- and process-based investment approaches and by using multiple research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, in search of empirical evidence of investment practice in Sweden. Our results confirm the large spread of financial and non-financial criteria used to evaluate new projects. Local governments that have adopted New Public Management largely use more sophisticated capital investment routines and methods. We contribute with added granularity to capital investment practices in local governments, characterized by diverse and sometimes conflicting decision rationales in terms of financial, operational, and political considerations. The investment practice reveals a complex, competitive, and “messy” picture with potential effects and consequences.

A Swedish Market for Sustainability-Related and Socially Labelled Bonds. Institutional Investors as Drivers

The report examines the role that Swedish institutional investors might play in the development of a Swedish market for sustainability-related and socially labelled bonds. Engagement by the financial sector is seen as a necessity for society’s ability to cope with the growing stress on welfare systems and the demands presented in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While Sweden has been in the foreground with green bonds, the country is lagging behind many other western liberal market economies on social bonds. A point of departure for this research has been to better understand SDG 11, on the development of sustainable cities and communities, and what are viewed in Sweden as run-down and socio-economically weak suburbs. Drawing on international experience of sustainability-related and socially labelled bonds as well as previous experience of Swedish impact investing, the report analyses the drivers of and forces constructing this virgin market, zooming in on the role taken of three parties: institutional investors and the issuers, mainly local governments and property developers, with the financial sector acting as intermediary. The report finds that the institutional investors have taken a variety of approaches to social bond investing, which is an indicator of a lack of guidance from both the individual investor-organizations’ boards as well as the Swedish public. In the few cases where investments have been made, previous experience of both green investing and foreign social bonds were used as stepping stone. Overall, knowledge is weak, in relation to both evaluating risk and return and understanding the impact metrics linked to the bonds’ use of proceeds. Furthermore, potential Swedish issuers are yet to come forward. As is the case in other western countries, Swedish public financial institutions – such as the export agency and a government sponsored mortgage lender, appears to be at the forefront. Nonetheless, Swedish local governments, which play a central role in the high-tax economy’s delivery of public services, remains hesitant, prevented by the limited successes of previous experimentation with social financial instruments such as public social investment funds and social impact bonds. This is compounded by restrictive accountancy practices, organizational silos and a culture that shuns public-private collaborations. The report makes recommendations on how to help the socially labelled bond-market achieve take-off, such as enhancing the development of financial vehicles, private as well as government-sponsored, and speeding up the work with the development of standardized metrics. In addition, institutional investors need to step up, and be braver than they are currently – at least if they claim to take all the SDGs seriously. A key message to the issuers is not to ask for too much in relation to risk-sharing – socially labelled bonds must not be too complex in structure or too complicated to evaluate for investors. However, the grand message from the report, is just the spreading of knowledge of the value of developing a market for socially labelled bonds, and the role that domestic institutional investors can play, if they decide to increase their commitment.

Politicisation of the audit process: The case of politically affiliated auditors in Swedish local governments

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse how the internal audit process as well as the outcome of that process is used for politically reasons. This will be accomplished by applying the political theory of politicisation to the analysis of the internal audit process within Swedish local authorities. By applying the theory of politicisation, this study contributes to our understanding of how the internal audit process is open for the use of (de‐)politicisation as strategies to influence stakeholders’ perception of the audit process as well as the identity and legitimacy of the auditee. Especially interesting is perhaps how politicisation in combination with de‐politicisation can be used to either put emphasis on issues of political relevance or avoid addressing issues that are politically sensitive. Previous research on auditing in public sector organisations has predominately focussed on audit independence and the role of auditors. By applying a new perspective to the role of auditing in public sector organisations and by focussing on the process and the outcome instead of function, this study increases our understanding of auditing in politically governed organisations.

Environmental Orientation in Swedish Local Governments

This study explores the environmental orientation in Swedish local governments. Environmental concerns over potential risk factors have become more important and popular among public organizations and environmental improvement efforts are made to create a sustainable ecosystem for the actors doing business, living and working in the area. Prior research indicates that public organizations have started to become more environmentally oriented in order to take on more responsibilities for reducing their own environmental impact as well as influencing the citizens and local businesses in the direction of a more sustainable way of living and working. Through a survey of Swedish local governments we conclude that they are taking on a key role in developing a sustainable ecosystem through becoming more environmentally oriented. This includes developing a framework for setting environmental goals, identifying suitable environmental indicators and reporting to a wide range of stakeholders. A factor that explains the increasing environmental orientation in the public sector is the implementation of digitalized performance measurement systems. We find that the environmental performance measurements are used to motivate different internal and external stakeholders in the efforts to create a multi-actor ecosystem.

Are Political Parties More Responsive to Advocacy Groups Mobilising Core Voters or Swing Voters? Political Responsiveness to Citizens' Protest Movements in Swedish Local Governments

Political scientists often assume that parties listen to some voters more than others. However, this theoretical perspective has rarely been applied to explain political responsiveness to advocacy groups. This article argues that the type of voter mobilised by protest activities plays a role in determining whether advocacy groups are able to influence political decisions. The explanatory value of this approach is demonstrated by a study of the geographic distribution of school closures among Swedish local governments during the 2002–10 period. School issues have been important drivers of contentious politics in Sweden. Two hypotheses are tested. The first hypothesis predicts that protesters in districts with numerous swing voters are more likely to achieve their goals. The second hypothesis predicts that protesters in districts with numerous core voters are more likely to achieve their goals. In line with the swing hypothesis, the main results suggest that protesters are more likely to stop school closures in volatile polling districts.

Population Changes in Swedish Municipalities


 
 
 Swedish local governments are responsible for providing public services to their residents. Population changes require varying considerations and responses. Population growth demands the extension of the local government service capacity, for example to provide technical services. Even a declining population is demanding because of the difficulties adjusting the size of the service capacity in an economically sustainable way. This paper seeks to clarify the economic impacts of population changes on technical services in Swedish local municipalities. Two technical sectors are compared: waste operations, and water and wastewater operations. Potential impacts are identified in existing literature. A dataset is analyzed using regression analysis. The results suggest that there are no clear reported economic impacts of population changes for waste operations. Waste operations seem to be able to adapt to existing population changes in an economically sustainable manner. On the other hand, the results show that there are clear economic impacts connected to population changes for water and wastewater operations. Costs and user fee levels are lower in municipalities with population growth, compared to municipalities with a declining population. However, the investment expenditure per connected capita increases greatly in municipalities with population growth.
 
 

Democracy, Redistribution, and Political Participation: Evidence From Sweden 1919-1938

In this paper, we compare how two different types of political regimes�direct versus representative democracy�redistribute income toward the relatively poor segments of society after the introduction of universal and equal suffrage. Swedish local governments are used as a testing ground since this setting offers a number of attractive features for a credible impact evaluation. Most importantly, we exploit the existence of a population threshold, which partly determined a local government's choice of democracy to implement a regression-discontinuity design. The results indicate that direct democracies spend 40�60 percent less on public welfare. Our interpretation is that direct democracy may be more prone to elite capture than representative democracy since the elite's potential to exercise de facto power is likely to be greater in direct democracy after democratization.

Issues with contact centres – as a new interface between public organisations and citizens

PurposeVarious levels of government offer citizens different channels and services using information technology (IT). Within e‐government different types of “e‐services” are used. The communications are made through a user interface consisting of an e‐service application. E‐services are used for digital management of routine matters: records are created, received, maintained, used and disposed during the processes of capturing and maintaining evidence about business activities and transactions. Besides e‐services, public administrations are establishing new channels organised as contact centres, in order to interact more efficiently with the citizens. The establishment of contact centres could be seen as an expression of an integrated approach to manage and control information flows in order to improve and ensure effective services. The purpose of this paper is to identify recordkeeping challenges related to public organisations' e‐government development and documentation practice.Design/methodology/approachThe data presented and analysed are based on a qualitative study of Swedish local governments' (municipalities) establishment and implementation of contact centres during 2011. The study was designed as a multiple case study, using interviews as a data collection method.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that the establishment of contact centres has other motives than the traditional need to use information as evidence for decision making: namely internal business process development and cost savings. The information is captured proactively and serves different purposes, which challenges the strong bond between processes, legislation, organisation and accountability.Practical implicationsThis paper will be of interest to record‐keeping practitioners working in the shift to e‐government.Originality/valueInformation is captured in new ways where the same information serves several interests. This research addresses the importance of including research in the beginning of the life of the record in relation to the influence made by the creator and the social construction of the record as part of archival thinking and research.

Archivists—A Profession in Transition?

E-government development has put pressure on public organizations to work with electronic information. Records from complex e-government services have to be captured and managed in order to be accessible both in the present and in the long term. The data and analysis presented is based on a multiple case study of nine Swedish local governments (municipalities) identified as good ex-amples of best practice of e-government. An analytical model for recordkeeping awareness in three arenas: the legal, the political and the workplace has been created in order to identify how political decisions and new technology impact on professional archivists’ practice and status. The research findings demonstrate a gap between the legal and workplace arenas in both directions caused by lack of recordkeeping awareness primarily within the political arena. Archivists´ profes-sional status seems to be limited, which opens up possibilities for other profes-sional groups to replace them.

Dynamic Commitment and the Soft Budget Constraint: An Empirical Test

This paper develops an empirical framework for the problem of soft budgets which is explicitly based on a dynamic commitment problem, i.e., the inability of a supporting organization to commit itself not to extend more resources ex post to a budget-constrained organization than it was prepared to provide ex ante. Swedish local governments are used as a testing ground since the central government distributed a large number of fiscal transfers. The estimated soft-budget effect is economically significant: on average, a local government increases its debt by more than 20 percent by going from a hard to a soft budget constraint. (JEL D82, G32, L32)

Sustainable development from below: institutionalising a global idea-complex

This article makes a comparative analysis on how the global idea-complex of sustainable development is interpreted and institutionalised on the local level. Local institutionalisation is analysed from the theoretical framework of new institutionalism's theme of policy diffusion and adaptation. From a most different case-study design, the article analyses four Swedish local governments in the region of Örebro: Hällefors, Karlskoga, Lekeberg and Örebro. The results show that the four local governments adapt to sustainable development in quite different ways, from local translation processes (Hällefors and Örebro) to resistance and ignorance (Karlskoga and Lekeberg). This variation is interpreted in relation to the importance of local contexts. There is no intra-regional spreading of ideas leading to convergence among the cases. However, not only the local context matters, but also policy areas and development projects constitute contexts, indicating the importance of intra-local differences.

Collective Lobbying in Politics: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Sweden

This paper first formulates a model of how the politicians in a local government collectively lobby to raise intergovernmental grants to their local government. The model identifies a relationship between council size and grants received. I then study this relationship empirically using the distribution of intergovernmental grants to the Swedish local governments. I use a fuzzy regression-discontinuity design that exploits a council size law to isolate exogenous variation in council size and find a large negative council size effect. This pattern provides indirect evidence for the occurrence of lobbying. The direction of the effect could be explained by free-riding incentives in individual lobbying effort contribution caused by a collective action problem in grant-raising among local government politicians.