Mid Sweden University

This study takes its vantage point from the increasing decentralisation of welfare by examining the growing trend of welfare states implementing active labour market policies (ALMPs), with a focus on Sweden’s municipal autonomy. Local governments often maintain their own local labour market programmes (LLMPs) despite having no central requirement, yet efforts vary significantly. Research explaining these variations is limited, but this study uses a new dataset to explore the factors driving the scope of LLMPs. It tests whether needs-driven structural characteristics or partisan value motives influence municipal ambitions. However, the findings indicate that neither unemployment levels, education, social welfare needs nor political rule explain LLMP variations. Instead, municipal size, tax rates and organisational factors play a more critical role. These results challenge conventional assumptions, revealing that ALMPs are shaped more by structural and administrative conditions than by local needs or political ideology.

This study examines the potential link between descriptive and substantive representation. More precisely, we examine whether a higher level of political descriptive representation of women improves their substantive representation in terms of policy spending in areas that are known to be prioritized by women. We use data from a pooled sample of all of the 290 Swedish municipalities covering the years from 1994 to 2021. We make at least four contributions to the research field: we use multiple measures of (1) women’s political representation and (2) policy spending, and we also (3) test assumptions at the subnational level, where policy spending matters most, and (4) assess them over a longer period of time, stretching across almost three decades. In contrast to our expectations, the findings show that the descriptive representation of women has no influence on policy spending; instead, economic and demographical aspects dominate. 

This paper studies the introduction of an innovative way of organizing local politics, through a new system for management and governance system in the Swedish municipality Timrå. The study is focused on the process for producing budgets and operational plans. In contrast to the traditional representative model of democracy, the new system instead draws on deliberative notions of democracy. As the process includes politicians from all parties, together with representatives from the administration, it is an example of elite deliberation at the local level. The aim is to answer the question of whether this process lives up to the ideals of a deliberative and consensus-oriented model for decision making. Additionally, it addresses the relationship between elected officials and senior civil servants in a deliberative setting. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, combining documentation and data from observations of deliberative meetings with a survey of the participants. The results show a process that largely lives up to deliberative ideals such as openness and respect, as well as positions being justified in terms of the common good. Omnipresent economic constraints as well as the perception that participants had to some degree already made up their mind and were bound by partisan considerations lowers the potential for constructive solutions. The civil service played a dual role; rarely actively participating in the deliberative process while controlling the organisation and preconditions for it explicitly.

A neglected dimension of housing policy is how municipalities use it as a gatekeeping mechanism to exclude vulnerable groups and thereby control their territory. To examine this topic, we apply a systematic review that draws on the international academic literature and utilizes three bibliometric analyses. First, statistical analysis reveals the field’s growth and how it is characterized by publications often combining an impressive set of data and methods. Second, the material is explored through network analysis, emphasizing how a few important journals lead the distribution of knowledge. Finally, a thematic analysis highlights consistency in the detrimental effects of exclusionary policies across different contexts. A distinction between planned excluding practices and policies with such unintended effects are also evident. The analysis underscores the conflict between individual responsibilities and societal obligations, where current policies tend to place substantial burdens on the individual.

This report examines the evolution, structure, and impact of the IntegrationNetwork in Västernorrland (INA) from 1985 to 2024. Through a combination ofdocument analysis, media reviews, interviews, and statistical data, the studyexplores how INA has supported the reception and integration of newly arrivedmigrants in the region. The analysis is structured chronologically, highlights keyprojects and milestones and includes a network analysis and demographicmapping of migration patterns. The report identifies INA as a flexible,collaborative platform that has shifted from informal cooperation to aninstitutionalized regional actor. The findings emphasize the importance of localknowledge, strategic collaboration and development of joint solutions inaddressing migration challenges. Key lessons from the 40-year history of INA offervaluable insights for future integration policy and practice, both withinVästernorrland and beyond.

Denna rapport undersöker Integrationsnätverket i Västernorrlands (INA)utveckling, struktur och betydelse under perioden 1985–2024. Genom analys avdokument, mediematerial, statistik och intervjuer med nyckelaktörer kartläggsnätverkets roll i att samordna mottagande och integrationsinsatser i länet. Studienpresenterar en kronologisk genomgång av centrala projekt och initiativ,kompletterad med nätverksanalys och demografisk statistik över flyttmönster ochbefolkningssammansättning. Resultaten visar hur INA utvecklats från ettinformellt forum till en institutionaliserad samverkansstruktur med förmåga attanpassa sig till förändrade samhällsförhållanden. Nätverket har varit avgörandeför erfarenhetsutbyte, strategisk samordning och utveckling av gemensammalösningar. Rapportens slutsatser betonar vikten av lokal kunskap, flexibelorganisering och långsiktigt lärande för att stärka integrationsarbetet – både iVästernorrland och i andra regioner med liknande utmaningar.

This paper studies the introduction of an innovative way of organizing local politics, through a new system for management and governance system in a Swedish municipality. In contrast to the traditional representative model of democracy fueled by competition between parties and interests, the examined system instead draws on deliberative notions of democracy. Even though such features are far from unique for scholars of democracy, the studied case provides rare elements that seldom have been scrutinized in combination before. First, the deliberative aspects are far-reaching within the municipal organization as they include politicians, from both ruling coalitions and the opposition, together with the representatives from the administration. Second, the new system also goes against prevailing trends of increased polarisation between incumbents and opposition at the local level. With this backdrop, ambitions for a truly consensus-oriented system for management and governance appear as atypical and thereby worthy of scientific interest. 

In practice, we study the new process for producing budgets and operational plans for the municipality, using a mixed-methods approach. Documentation and data from observations of deliberative meetings between politicians and public officials are combined with a survey of the participants of the process, with the aim of gauging the extent to which the process lives up to deliberative ideals as well as any effects on the relationship between elected officials and senior civil servants.

The results show that although many preconditions for a deliberative process are present, and that there are signs of deliberation, the logic of representative democracy still overshadow the decision making, illustrating the difficulty in combining these two philosophies within a political system. Furthermore, the results illustrate the importance of the civil servants for maintaining such processes at the municipal level. Senior officials are responsible for the organization of the process and for the production of relevant information and drafts of the text, giving them several opportunities to influence the outcome. It is thus vital that they are perceived as competent and impartial by the other participants in the process. Although this case study departs from a single Swedish municipality, its conclusion of challenges with deliberative processes and the crucial role played by public officials may be valid for other contexts.

This study examines the link between women’s representation in national parliaments and their possibility to participate in civil society. Utilizing panel data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset, covering 1975–2019, we investigate how the presence of women in parliaments influences the possibility for women to participate in civil society, especially in non-liberal democratic settings. The results indicate a positive association post-1990, coinciding with an international emphasis on civil society and a rise in women’s parliamentary representation in both liberal democracies and autocratic regimes. The study however highlights that in hybrid and autocratic regimes, increased female representation can also be used to project a gender-equal image without genuine democratization intentions. These findings suggest a correlation between the increase in women in parliaments and greater opportunities for their participation in civil society, but do not imply that the results reflect processes towards democracy. The findings contribute to understanding women’s possibilities in non-democratic regimes and underscores the need for further qualitative analysis to fully grasp the implications of these trends.