Mellem politik og administration: det kommunale topembedsværk
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/politica.v55i3.140276Nøgleord:
offentlig forvaltning, offentlig ledelse, embedsmænd, kommunerResumé
Studier viser, at kommunale topembedsmænd prioriterer den politiske betjening højt. Dette fund er i den eksisterende litteratur blevet brugt til at sige noget om den rolle, som de kommunale topembedsmænd på tværs af lande indtager over for politikerne. Hidtil er dette hovedsagelig blevet undersøgt gennem spørgeskemaer, der fokuserer på kontaktmønstre og omfanget af den politiske betjening. I denne artikel argumenterer jeg i stedet for at studere rolleopfattelsen gennem interviews, hvilket giver adgang til erfaringsnære beskrivelser af topembedsmændenes rolleopfattelse. Gennem 12 interviews viser jeg, at de kommunale topembedsmænd opfatter deres rolle som oversættere, bindeled og mediatorer, hvilket indebærer en vekslende bevægelse mellem det politiske og administrative niveau. Embedsmændene finder det vigtigt at betjene det politiske niveau samtidig med, at de opfatter deres rolle som partipolitisk neutral. Det skaber et krydspres, som topembedsmændene forsøger at balancere ved at benytte tre strategier, der skal skærme dem mod uhensigtsmæssig politisk indblanding: De rådfører, oplærer og adgangsbegrænser.
Referencer
Aberbach, Joel D., Robert D. Putnam og Bert A. Rockman (1981). Bureaucrats and politicians in Western democracies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Alford, John, Jean Hartlet, Sophie Yates og Owen Hughes (2017). Into the purple zone: Deconstructing the politics/administration distinction. American Review of Public Administration 47 (7): 752-763.
Ashworth, Rachel Elizabeth, Aoife Mary McDermott og Graeme Currie (2019). Theorizing from qualitative research in public administration: Plurality through a combination of rigor and richness. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 29 (2): 318-333.
Beach, Derek og Jonas Gejl Kaas (2020). The great divides: Incommensurability, the impossibility of mixed-methodology and what to do about it. International Studies Review 22 (2): 214-235.
Beamer, Glenn (2002). Elite interviews and state politics research. state politics and policy quarterly 2 (1): 86-96.
Bo Smith-udvalget (2015). Embedsmanden i det moderne folkestyre. 1. udg. København: DJØF Forlag.
Bourgault, Jacques og Karolien Van Dorpe (2013). Managerial reforms, public service bargains and top civil servant identity. International Review of Administrative Sciences 79 (1): 49-70.
Boye, Pernille og Carina Saxlund (2018). Laster og dyder i embedsværk og forskning. En metodekritisk analyse af Bo Smith-udvalgets undersøgelser af embedsværkets overholdelse af regler og normer. Politica 50 (1): 65-87.
Brødsgaard, Marie-Louise Frølich, Caroline Howard Grøn, Mette Dalgaard Nielsen og Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen (2017). Afklaring af ledelsesrum mellem politikere og embedsmænd: Hvordan og hvor meget? Public Governance Research 2: 1-25.
Bækgaard, Martin (2011). The impact of formal organizational structure on politico-administrative-interaction: Evidence from a natural experiment. Public Administration 89 (3): 1063-1080.
Bækgaard, Martin, Jens Blom-Hansen og Søren Serritzlew (2020). How politicians see their relationship with top bureaucrats: Revisiting classical images. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions 35 (1): 5-24.
Bækgaard, Martin, Thomas Frank og Søren Serritzlew (2009). Ceremoni eller strategi? Reformers formål og sideformål. Politica 41 (2): 215-230.
Bækgaard, Martin, Morten Jakobsen og Ulrik Kjær (2013). Kommunalpolitikernes samspil med administrationen – er der forskel på frontbenchers og backbenchers? Politik og Økonomi 86 (4): 48-59.
Cecchini, Mathilde (2021). Hvem er jeg som leder? En analyse af ledende overlægers lederidentitet. Politica 53 (4): 383-403.
Christensen, Jørgen Grønnegård og Niels Opstrup (2018). Bureaucratic dilemmas: Civil servants between political responsiveness and normative constraints. Governance 31 (3): 481-498.
Christensen, Jørgen Grønnegård, Robert Klemmensen og Niels Opstrup (2014). Politicization and the replacement of top civil servants in Denmark: Politicization in Denmark. Governance 27 (2): 215-241.
Dorp, Erik-Jan Van (2018). Trapped in the hierarchy: The craft of Dutch city managers. Public Management Review 20 (8): 1228-1245.
Ebinger, Falk, Sylvia Veit og Nadin Fromm (2019). The partisan-professional dichotomy revisited: Politicization and decision-making of senior civil servants. Public Administration 97 (4): 861-876.
Ebinger, Falk, Sylvia Veit og Bastian Strobel (2021). Role models in the senior civil service: How tasks frame the identification of senior bureaucrats with active and reactive roles. International Journal of Public Administration 45 (14): 991-1002.
Egeberg, Morten (1999). The impact of bureaucratic structure on policy making. Public administration 77 (1): 155-170.
Flyvbjerg, Bent (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative inquiry 12 (2): 219-245.
Grøn, Caroline Howard og Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen (2017). Samspillet mellem politikere og embedsmænd, pp. 443-465 i Anders Berg-Sørensen, Caroline Howard Grøn og Hanne Foss Hansen (red.), Organiseringen af den offentlige sektor, 2. udg. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Hansen, Morten Balle (2009). Kommunernes administrative lederskab efter kommunalreformen: et kortfattet signalement. Kommunaldirektørforeningen i Danmark.
Hansen, Morten Balle, Niels Opstrup og Anders Ryom Villadsen (2013). En administrativ elite under forandring. Politica 45 (2): 178-194.
Harvey, William S. (2011). Strategies for conducting elite interviews. Qualitative Research 11 (4): 431-441.
Haverland, Markus og Dvora Yanow (2012). A hitchhiker’s guide to the public administration research universe: Surviving conversations on methodologies and methods. Public Administration Review 72 (3): 401-408.
Henrichsen, Carsten (2015). Dansk kommunalret: Grundtræk af den kommunale styrelseslovgivning, 1. udg. København: Ex Tuto.
Horton, Sylvia (2006). New Public Management: Its impact on public servant’s identity: An Introduction to this symposium. International Journal of Public Sector Management 19 (6): 533-542.
Hustedt, Thurid og Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen (2014). Ensuring political responsiveness: Politicization mechanisms in ministerial bureaucracies. International Review of Administrative Sciences 80 (4): 746-765.
Ibsen, Marius (2016). Kommunalreformen og kommunernes interne organisering og styring. Politik 19 (2).
Ibsen, Marius og Niels Opstrup (2016). Det kommunale skyggeliv. Politica 48 (4): 408-430.
Klausen, Kurt og Annick Magnier (1998). The anonymous leader: Appointed CEOs in Western local government. Odense: Odense University Press.
Korstjens, Irene og Albine Moser (2018). Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 4: Trustworthiness and publishing. The European Journal of General Practice 24 (1): 120-124.
Kvale, Steinar og Svend Brinkmann (2009). Interview. Introduktion til et håndværk, 2. udg. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Lilleker, Darren G. (2003). Interviewing the political elite: Navigating a potential minefield. Politics 23 (3): 207-214.
Marcussen, Martin og Jarle Trondal (2011). The OECD civil servant: Caught between Scylla and Charybdis. Review of International Political Economy 18 (5): 592-621.
Maxwell, Joseph Alex (2012). A realist approach for qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
McDermott, Katie L., Christine A. Schindler, Krisjon R. Olson og Tara L. Petersen (2021). Acute care pediatric nurse practitioners as leaders: Perceptions, self-identity, and role congruity. Journal of Pediatric Health Care 35 (5): 559-563.
Miles, Matthew B., Michael Huberman og Johnny Saldana (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook, 3. udg. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Moon, Katie et al. (2016). A guideline to improve qualitative social science publishing in ecology and conservation journals. Ecology and Society 21 (3): 17.
Mouritzen, Poul Erik (1993). Mod en fælles fremtid? De kommunale chefforeninger i en brydningstid. Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag.
Mouritzen, Poul Erik og James H. Svara (2002). Leadership at the apex: Politicians and administrators in Western local governments. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Nelson, Kimberly L. og James H. Svara (2015). The roles of local government managers in theory and practice: A centennial perspective. Public Administration Review 75 (1): 49-61.
Ospina, Sonia M., Marc Esteve og Seulki Lee (2018). Assessing qualitative studies in public administration research. Public Administration Review 78 (4): 593-605.
Perry, James L. og Wouter Vandenabeele (2008). Behavioral dynamics: Institutions, identities, and self-regulation, pp. 56-79 i James L. Perry og Annie Hondeghem (red.), Motivation in public management: The call of public service. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Putnam, Robert D. (1973). The political attitudes of senior civil servants in Western Europe: A preliminary report. British Journal of Political Science 3 (3): 257-290.
Ridder, Hans-Gerd (2017). The theory contribution of case study research designs. Business Research 10(2): 281-305.
Seawright, Jason og John Gerring (2008). Case selection techniques in case study research: A menu of qualitative and quantitative options. Political Research Quarterly 61 (2): 294-308.
Simon, Herbert Alexander (1997). Administrative behaviour: A study of decision-making process in administrative organizations, 4. udg. New York: Free Press.
Svara, James H. (1998). The politics-administration dichotomy model as aberration. Public Administration Review 58 (1): 51-58.
Svara, James H. (2001). The myth of the dichotomy: Complementarity of politics and administration in the past and future of public administration. Public Administration Review 61 (2): 176-183.
Tajfel, Henri (1982). Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Timmermans, Stefan og Iddo Tavory (2012). Theory construction in qualitative research: From grounded theory to abductive analysis. Sociological Theory 30 (3): 167-186.
Timmermans, Stefan og Iddo Tavory (2014). Abductive analysis: Theorizing qualitative research. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Trangbæk, Amalie (2021). Life at the top: Understanding top bureaucrats’ roles as the link between politics and administration. Ph.d.-afhandling. Aarhus: Politica.
Weber, Max (1922/1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive Sociology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wockelberg, Helena (2014). Political servants or independent experts? A comparative study of bureaucratic role perceptions and the implementation of EU law in Denmark and Sweden. Journal of European Integration 36 (7): 731-747.
Woodrow, Wilson (1887). The study of administration. Political Science Quarterly II (2).
Yanow, Dvora og Peregrine Schwartz-Shea (2006). Interpretation and method: Empirical research methods and the interpretive turn. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.
Downloads
Publiceret
Citation/Eksport
Nummer
Sektion
Licens
Copyright (c) 2023 PoliticaOphavsretten tilhører Politica. Materialet må ikke bruges eller distribueres i kommercielt øjemed.
