Den kommunala demokratins väktare? : En kvalitativ textanalys om tjänstemännens roll i den kommunala förvaltningen

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this study is to examine how 19 Swedish municipalities describes their democratic mission and the role of civil servants through their value statements and ethical policy documents. The study asks three main questions: whether municipalities portray themselves as democratic institutions or as organizations like any other organization; how their value frameworks relate to Lennart Lundquist´s concept of the public ethos; and how they define the role of the civil servants who work in their organization in relation to politics, democratic values and responsibility. The analysis builds mainly on Lennart Lundquist’s theories of democratic and economic values and the notion of civil servants as guardians of democracy, as well as research on New Public Management and how it has influenced the public sector values. A qualitative text analysis was conducted using a coding scheme to catch relevant themes, such responsibility, economic or democratic values. The study finds that while some municipalities emphasize democratic values and portray themselves as democratic institutions, others describe themselves more in terms of a modern organization focused on efficiency. How the municipalities view the civil servants therefore seems to depend on how the role is framed within the organization.