Search

The outputs of political processes, i.e. policy, reflect rational cost-benefit calculations and power relationships, but are also shaped by the values and beliefs of policy actors, i.e. sovereigns, involved in the decision-making process. Values and beliefs affect how rational analyses and power relationships are understood and valued by sovereigns. This article suggests that understanding sovereigns’ values and beliefs is, however, necessary but insufficient for understanding concrete policy outputs, particularly in complex policy processes characterized by conflicting interests and values. In such cases, sovereigns are forced to prioritize among their values and beliefs. This article proposes a framework for studying how sovereigns prioritize among their values and beliefs. This framework is then used to study a complex policy process ridden with conflicts of interest and value-conflicts, which highlights the value and necessity of studying sovereigns, their values and beliefs, as well as the prioritizations they make among those values and beliefs.

We analyze the importance of legitimacy and compare how drivers of public policy attitudes evolve across the policy process consisting of the input (i.e. the processes forgoing acquisition of power and the procedures permeating political decision-making), throughput (i.e. the inclusion of and interactions between actors in a governance-system) and output (i.e. the substantive consequences of those decisions) stages. Using unique panel data through the three phases of the congestion tax in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, we find that legitimacy is indeed important in explaining policy support. Moreover, we find a lingering effect where support in one phase depends on legitimacy both in the present and in previous phases. Hence, our study takes us one step further on the road to understand the complicated dynamic mechanisms behind the interactions between policy making, policy support and the legitimacy and approval of politicians and political processes. JEL: H11, H23, Z18

"A new structure for decision-making in relation to management of large carnivores is presently being implemented in Sweden through a system of regional Wildlife Management Delegations (WMD). The governing idea is that strengthened regional influence will increase the legitimacy of both the management system and its outcomes. We use this institutional change as a backdrop for analyzing the possibilities to apply deliberative practices to reduce conflict and enhance legitimacy in the management of natural resources. We argue that structures alone do not determine the prospects of deliberative arrangements; the political context (i.e. the characteristics and relationships among participating actors) is equally important. An analytical framework is proposed that merges structural prospects for deliberation in co-management with stakeholder features, capturing the interests and beliefs of the actors involved. We illustrate the application of this framework by analysing original data from three Wildlife Management Delegations. Our findings show that there are significant differences in the beliefs among the actors within the system. Based on similarities in their beliefs, they can potentially form a relatively strong anti-carnivore/pro-WMD-coalition, opposing the pro-carnivore/anti-WMD-beliefs of the nature conservation interest. Furthermore, the structure is designed to meet vital deliberative criteria, yet we point at substantial differences between statutory and effective representation that, as it coincides with diverging beliefs, can affect decision-making. One qualitative criterion for successful deliberation stands out in our study — reasoned debate. The prospects for deliberation in WMDs to reduce conflict levels among opposing interests seem to depend on the capacity for ensuring exchange of reasonable and informed arguments."

Ever since Aristotle’s outline of the political animal in his Politics, the notion of dialogue as at the center of political life has been strong, and inspired a vibrant tradition within democratic theory to designate public deliberations as a cornerstone of participatory democracy and representative government. Although the literature on deliberation has grown rapidly over the past decades, it has mostly been theoretical. to date we also have a rather limited knowledge of the content of deliberative processes, i.e. what actually transpires when people deliberate on a given issue and how participants process the value-based appeals presented to them. This is surprising as the level of abstraction on which the deliberations revolve should have significant bearing on the outcomes in terms of value elicitation and –change. The purpose of this paper is to explore the content of a public deliberation. We do so in a case that should present ideal conditions for enlightened deliberations on core values: the planning of a large-scale on-shore wind-farm. Do the deliberations concern the value-conflicts presented by political elites and media (and subsequently applied to construct attributes in e.g. a choice experiments and non-market valuations)? Or, do deliberations rather revolve round more salient, issue-specific opinions? Furthermore, what does this tell us about the prospects for applying public deliberations as a tool for raising moral and value concerns, and for solving or amending values-based conflicts of interest? Godkänd; 2012; 20121002 (simonm)

Mining has a substantial influence on several parts of society, in part by providing economic and social development, but also through negative environmental and social-cultural impacts connected to its operation. This combination of both positive and negative effects induces a complex planning and permitting process concerning large and differentiated values, long time spans and large numbers of actors. The aim of this report is to conduct a survey of previous research on societal aspects on mines and mining conducted within political science in particular (and within a broader spectrum of other social sciences in general). The emphasis of the study is placed on identifying research focusing on how, and to what extent, political and institutional factors affect processes of mining development and subsequent serve to shape their outcomes. Results show that previous research has focused on the distribution of rights and resources in connection to development. Five main sub-categories are identified: national mining policies, indigenous rights, corporate social responsibility, company-community conflicts and environmental impacts. Research on how the development processes is impacted by the influence of e.g. public opinion and stakeholder core values, of interactions within the administrative system and of national and subnational policies has though largely been overlooked. Godkänd; 2012; 20120227 (ysko)

Despite essentially focusing the same issue, i.e. exploring the drivers behind pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) at the individual level, research within environmental psychology and environmental political science rarely converge. Rather than joining forces, theories and models of individuals’ PEB have developed side-by-side within these two main approaches, without them communicating, exchanging experiences and possibly finding a common ground for future research across disciplinary boundaries. This is certainly a shortcoming in the literature on PEB, as perspectives, theories and models from these two research traditions very well might prove to complement each other in a fruitful way, and provide a better basis for political decision-making and policy design. This research attempts to amalgamate the learning on factors driving individual-level PEB from environmental psychology and environmental political science respectively. The aim of the study is to examine how these two theories relate to each other, if they essentially measure the same mechanism, and if they complement, rather than compete with, each other: What factors remain as significant explanatory factors for PEB when the two theoretical models are combined? Godkänd; 2012; 20121002 (simonm)

Godkänd; 2011; 20110908 (ysko)

Godkänd; 2011; 20110623 (annicas)

Godkänd; 2011; 20110908 (ysko)

The contemporary trend within natural resource governance sees a strong increase in collaborative management. The principal idea is that collaborative structures constitute effective arenas for problem solving, an institutional arrangement promoting deliberation and learning among opposing interests. In advisory policy subsystems that are characterized by the existence of many competing policy coalitions collaborative management is often regarded as a response to experienced legitimacy deficits. A successful outcome of such institutional reforms, however, requires that policy learning within and between coalitions take place. Thus the turnout of collaborative arrangements is dependent upon the characteristics of political coalitions for deliberation and learning to evolve across competing coalitions. Uncovering the mechanisms driving the formation and maintenance of coalitions is therefore a key undertaking in policy analysis and the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has been widely applied for this purpose. This study aimed to explore policy coordination and coalition formation, both inspired by, and with a critical assessment, of the ACF. For this purpose, a case study analysis set within the Swedish game management policy was conducted, applying social network analysis as a tool to identify existing coalitions and a value-survey to capture the actors beliefs on a vide range of matters. The results indicate, firstly, that perceived belief correspondence constitute the rationale determining the formation of coalitions and, secondly, that the catalogue of beliefs shared by actors within a coalition is composed by policy beliefs, in particular the more empirically oriented, as no connection between deep core beliefs and coalitions was found. The study contribute to the theoretical puzzle concerning the driving forces behind coalition formation in general and to the specific area of collaborative game management in particular, as the prospects for learning across the defined coalitions was discussed. Natural resource governance sees a strong increase in collaborative management. The principal idea is that collaborative structures constitute effective arenas for problem solving, an institutional arrangement promoting deliberation and learning among opposing interests. In advisory policy subsystems that are characterized by the existence of many competing policy coalitions collaborative management is often regarded as a response to experienced legitimacy deficits. A successful outcome of such institutional reforms, however, requires that policy learning within and between coalitions take place. Thus the turnout of collaborative arrangements is dependent upon the characteristics of political coalitions for deliberation and learning to evolve across competing coalitions. Uncovering the mechanisms driving the formation and maintenance of coalitions is therefore a key undertaking in policy analysis and the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) has been widely applied for this purpose. This study aim to explore policy coordination and coalition formation both inspired by, and with a critical assessment, of the ACF. For this purpose, a case study analysis set within the Swedish game management policy was conducted, applying social network analysis as a tool to identify existing coalitions and a value-survey to capture the actors beliefs on a vide range of matters. Godkänd; 2011; 20111122 (annicas)

Godkänd; 2010; 20100915 (annica_s)

As the discourses of ecological sustainability point towards the active involvement of individuals in the environmental work as an important prerequisite for targeting the sources of environmental degradation, one of the main foci for contemporary environmental policy and political theory is the need for comprehensive individual lifestyle-changes. Within political theory an Ecological Citizenship, reinterpreting the traditional state/individual relationship by straddling the private - public; national - global; and present - future divides, has been suggested a valuable approach to realising a personal responsibility for the environment. Empirical research analysing the prospects for ecological citizenship to function as a route towards individual environmental responsibility is, however, to date lacking in the literature. In this paper we elaborate on how the theory of ecological citizenship can be made empirically operational. Godkänd; 2009; 20091005 (simon_m)

As environmental problems today are understood as being problems of collective action, they also depend on the broad engagement of individual citizens for their successful solution. Policymakers are thereby faced with the challenge of designing policy and constructing policy tools, which contribute to an increase in individual environmental responsibility and voluntarily behavioural change. Here, this challenge is approached from the point of departure of policy legitimacy, concluding that the problem of legitimacy facing public policy is threefold: affecting the performance (in terms of effectiveness and efficiency) of political programs and policy tools; the boundaries of the policymaking process itself (through the legitimacy/effectiveness dilemma) as well as the democratic standing and future overall performance of political government. As such, the thesis aims both at exploring the level of legitimacy for contemporary Swedish environmental public policy as well as at analysing the prospects and prerequisites for designing future environmental policy that holds a high(er) level of legitimacy. In order to fulfil these aims, a further objective is to discuss the meaning and function of policy (as opposed to political-) legitimacy as well as to suggest methods and approaches to its study.By reviewing and synthesising key concepts and theories from legitimacy theory, public opinion research, and policy analysis, as well as from social and environmental psychology, the first part of the thesis constructs a framework for studying policy legitimacy, focusing content rather than process or actors, and systems of belief rather than opinion. The level of policy legitimacy is seen as the extent to which values and beliefs underpinning public policy content corresponds to those established among the public. This suggests that the evaluation of policy legitimacy is a three-step process, requiring an exploration of policy belief-systems; a mapping of public belief-systems and a subsequent comparison of the two.In the second part of the thesis, the analytical framework is put to the test in an empirical exploration of the legitimacy for Swedish environmental public policy during the period 1994-2006. By examining and comparing data from a qualitative text analysis of national policy documents with the results of two mass-surveys conducted in the years of 2004 and 2006, important insights are reached in terms of how both policymakers and the public understand and frame the environmental problem in terms of causes, seriousness and possible solutions; how they assign costs and responsibilities in amending the problem; as well as their preference for overall goals in the environmental policy domain. The thesis concludes that although public policy and public values align on several instances, belief-system divergences potentially affecting policy performance might nevertheless be identified. These findings deepen our understanding of the character of those legitimacy issues facing Swedish environmental public policy, providing relevant insights into how the level of legitimacy, and thereby policy performance, might be furthered. Lastly, it is possible to conclude that through the elaboration of an analytical framework, contributions are made to the scientific study of policy legitimacy, also beyond the environmental policy domain. Godkänd; 2009; 20090813 (simon_m); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Statsvetenskap/Political Science Opponent: Professor Neil Carter, University of York, United Kingdom Ordförande: Professor Torbjörn Bergman, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 18 september 2009, kl 10.00 Plats: A 109, Luleå tekniska universitet

The ‘legitimacy - effectiveness dilemma' of environmental protection in contemporary (liberal) democracies indicates that a choice has to be made between implementing policies and policy instruments which are effective in their long-term protection of the environment, or implementing policies which are legitimate in the sense that they respect and abide by core liberal principles. Theoretically, this notion has led to a range of attempts to demonstrate that (some forms of) sustainability are compatible with (some forms of) liberal democracy. Empirically, the dilemma has also had political implications as most governments are reluctant to frame the environmental challenge as requiring a fundamental attitude- and lifestyle changes. However, the notion of a legitimacy - effectiveness dilemma rest on fundamental assumptions lacking an important piece of the legitimacy-puzzle, which makes it difficult to reach a reliable conclusion on what the balancing of legitimacy and effectiveness in environmental policy-making requires. Missing from the notion of legitimacy as an ultimately normative concept is empirically determined answers to the questions on why people either accept or reject the policy; as well as which set of values that, in each particular context, must be respected in order for legitimacy to be at hand? Finding these answers require an examination of the personal values held by the majority of citizens; those values that are truly established in society and therefore can form the basis for a legitimate relationship, and an initial empirical testing of this approach to legitimacy also suggests that the obstacles to strong environmental protection should be less significant in political practice than in theory, as people seem willing to trade individual freedom for stronger environmental protection. Godkänd; 2008; 20080826 (simon_m)

Godkänd; 2008; 20080923 (simon_m)

As the discourses of ecologically sustainable development point towards the active involvement of individuals in the environmental work as an important prerequisite for targeting the sources of environmental degradation, one of the main foci for contemporary environmental policy is the need for individual lifestyle-changes. However, most policies targeting environmental work at the individual level both in Sweden and in other countries is directed towards targeting individuals as consumers, and the corresponding active involvement is therefore primarily framed as a move towards sustainable patterns of consumption.As an alternative to this rather narrow interpretation of what individual environmental action comprise, suggestions for an Ecological Citizenship, straddling the private - public; national - global; and present - future divides, has recently been granted a central position in research on political ecology. As this novel conception, however, is considerably more wide-ranging than a change in consumption-patterns, the prospect of legitimately realising or rhetorically framing individual environmental action as ecological citizenship has been strongly questioned. Even so, recent research indicates that people might hold values in line with those of the ecological citizen.Based on mass-surveys to a total of 4000 Swedish households, this article investigates the values and attitudes established among the citizenry, in order to elucidate the seed-bed for cultivating ecological citizens in Sweden. What are the possibilities for environmental action in the shape of ecological citizenship in Sweden today? Do people in general hold values and attitudes in line with what is expected of the ecological citizen? If so, how? And if not, why? Godkänd; 2007; Bibliografisk uppgift: Sider: 1-28; 20080826 (simon_m)

As environmental problems today are understood as being problems of collective action, they also depend on the broad engagement of individual citizens for their successful solution. Institutions directed towards resolving the environmental situation need, accordingly, to be perceived by the citizenry as promoting acceptable goals, for acceptable reasons and by the use of acceptable means. In short, institutions aiming at instigating and sustaining collective action need first to be perceived by the collective itself as being legitimate. Emanating from the notion of public acceptance as essential for long-term effective policies, this thesis takes a first step towards an evaluation of the degree of legitimacy for Swedish environmental policy. In this endeavour, its primary purpose is to elucidate and study the foundations for policy legitimacy, that is, the normative principles embedded in political sustainability aspirations and expressed through the official Swedish environmental policy discourse. The main aim of this thesis is, accordingly; To explore, map and analyse the values, beliefs and principles underpinning Swedish environmental policy aiming at involving household members in the work towards an environmental sustainable society, as reflected through official policy documents and policy instruments in-use on both national and municipal levels of government. By the use of a value-oriented qualitative text analysis of both national and municipal policy documents, the normative foundations of Swedish environmental policy are outlined. Through this approach, important insights are reached in terms of how people, according to policy-makers, are expected to reason in environmental matters; what motivations are used to guide behaviour in this field; and what kinds of policy instruments and motivational statements are deemed the most effective for making people comply with new environmental norms of behaviour. Additionally, by applying three different conceptions of citizenship as the analytical framework by which the environmental norm is analysed, the thesis also examines to what extent the Swedish image of the ‘environmental citizen'; on the rights - obligations balance; on her motivations, values and participation in the environmental work, either express an image of a new ecological citizenship or keeps firmly within the traditional framework of the state - individual relationship. The thesis concludes first, that the normative foundations of Swedish environmental policy, on the national as well as the local level of government, draw strongly on collectivist values. All Swedish citizens are bound by a contract based in the membership of the Swedish community and shall therefore dutifully contribute to the common good by actively doing their bit in building the Green People's Home. The state - individual relationship is therefore interpreted as being contractual, territorially bound and based on the expectance of reciprocity. The responsibilities for political authority is, consequently, framed as to actively enlighten the citizens on what is considered the good life, and to steer the citizenry towards making (objectively defined) responsible or informed choices in everyday life. Education for sustainability thus plays an important part as the policy instrument of choice. In this context, the thesis also concludes that the environmental norm is, in almost unaltered form, transferred down to local authorities. Local level environmental policy thereby rests on the same normative foundations as the national policy discourse. Secondly, although Sweden has taken important steps on the way towards instigating new, environmental duties and responsibilities with the citizenry and towards expanding the citizenship sphere to encompass also the private, the image of the environmental citizen provided in the official environmental discourse still predominately resides within the framework of traditional, albeit environmentally sensitive, (civic-republican) citizenship. Godkänd; 2006; 20070109 (haneit)