| 1. |
- Lidén, Gustav, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Grindvakt för de oönskade? : : En kunskapsöversikt kring länken mellan kommunalbostadspolitik och bosättningen av socialt utsatta grupper
- 2024
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Rapport (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study focuses on an overlooked dimension of housing policy, namely how housing can serve as a mean to exclude vulnerable groups in general, and more specifically immigrants, from long-term settlement. Research in this area is dispersed across various disciplines. To survey the field and explore how local decision-makers can utilize housing policy as a tool for gatekeeping and thus exclude vulnerable groups, we employ a systematic literature review. It consists of two main parts: the first one concentrates on the international literature on the subject, while the second investigates the Swedish context.The international review is based on a sophisticated search in the broader international scholarly literature and is analyzed through (i) statistical analysis, (ii)network analysis, and (iii) thematic analysis. The Swedish part draws on so called grey literature,analyzed through a thematic analysis.The results indicate, among other findings, that policies aimed at excluding vulnerable groups share similarities either in their design or in their consequential effects, regardless of the context in which the policy is applied. It is also evident how the literature distinguishes between policies that intentionally exclude and those that unintentionally exclude. In a Swedish context, the results indicate that municipalities in Sweden interpret their housing supply responsibility differently, leading to inequality and deviations from the principle of equal treatment. The analysis also demonstrates that economic resources and the design of laws and regulations play a crucial role in the outcome of housing policy. Notably, the phenomenon of social dumping occupies a central role in the Swedish literature. Both analyses indicate a norm shift regarding society's responsibility versus individual responsibility in housing supply issues, and that the lack of adequate housing is a significant problem both in Sweden and in many other countries.
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| 2. |
- Lidén, Gustav, 1983-
(författare)
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Från demokrati till e-demokrati : En jämförande studie av demokratiutveckling i det moderna samhället
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This mainly deductive study examines what factors explain the variation of e-democracy and if, why a causal pathway exists. The deductive feature is carried out through examining the predictions of the modernization theory, testing hypotheses concerning the link between economic development and wealth in relation to e-democracy. Deriving from a theoretical point of departure where e-democracy is conceptualized with the help of democratic theory, this phenomenon is studied in three different but linked empirical parts. A cross-sectional global study did establish a relationship between some of the indicators derived from the theory; however, the magnitude of the explanatory power was lower at the level of e-democracy than at the level of democracy. A cross-sectional national study of all Sweden’s municipalities did show that especially high levels of education were clearly related to high levels of e-democracy. Approaching the questions of causal mechanisms and deviations from the found pattern, case studies did emphasize that the linkage between the structural conditions and actor’s-orientated explanations largely could verify what is deducted from theory. However, the importance of economic possibilities and internal prioritizations inside the political organization was essential for the development of e-democracy and was found through more inductive approaches.The main contribution of this thesis is the results that, both on an aggregated and a micro level, verify the theory but also add other important explanations. Another important conclusion is the creation of a model for e-democracy where a complete e-democracy is linked to democratic theory and not only maintains information, discussion, and decision-making processes through information and communication technology but also does this while strengthening political participation and political equality.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Hudson, Christine, 1950-, et al.
(författare)
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Between Central Control and Local Autonomy : The Changing Role of Swedish Municipalities in the Implementation of Migration Policies
- 2021. - 1
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Ingår i: Local Integration of Migrants Policy. - Cham : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9783030509781 - 9783030509798 ; , s. 11-34
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish migration policy has undergone dramatic changes and has moved from being one of the most generous policies to the minimum EU level. Traditionally refugee reception has been a policy area with a strong tradition of collaboration between national and local government with decentralized decision-making. The role of local government has, however, altered in the face of greater centralization and harder national government steering. This chapter provides a broad picture of Swedish local government’s responsibilities, the changing nature of the role it has played and is playing with regard to refugee reception and integration policies and the challenges it currently faces.
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| 5. |
- Ehrhart, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Examining the relationship between women’s descriptive political representation and women’s possibility to participate in civil society across regime types
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Civil Society. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1744-8689 .- 1744-8697. ; 20:2, s. 150-169
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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.
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| 6. |
- Holmqvist, Emma, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Resilience in Local Housing Policy? : Liberal or Restrictive Policy Stances Among Swedish Municipalities Following the Great Migration in the Summer of 2015
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Political Science. - Lausanne, Switzerland : Frontiers research foundation. - 2673-3145. ; 4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dramatic event that the great migration in the summer of 2015 entailed changed the migration policies of various countries. Substantial amendments were hastily made in a policy field in which already tense state-local relations struggled to manage coordination, responsibilities, and funding. Sweden, recognized as a final host country of the massive flows of refugees and asylum-seekers, was no exception. In Sweden, autonomy in terms of local refugee reception was circumvented in 2016. Municipalities’ remaining discretion is above all concentrated to one of the most crucial spheres of refugee reception: the outline of local housing policies. We argue that housing may be perceived as a tool of resilience that local governments may use to maintain far-reaching influence over the settlement of migrants with a refugee background by selecting restrictive or generous policy options. In this paper, we conduct a theoretically grounded analysis of local housing policy for refugees among Swedish municipalities. To capture the intrinsic dynamic, we propose a generic typology applying the dimension of either a liberal or a restrictive housing policy and relate it to theoretical notions of refugee policy as characterized by either a rights-based or a more restrictive approach. Our findings show that local governments in Sweden pursue a wide array of policy stances that appear to be correlated with factors originating from prior experiences of refugee reception, conditions in the labor and housing markets, and political circumstances. Based on this, we argue that local housing policy has offered municipalities a tool to exert a form of intentional, or unintentional, migration control despite national efforts to impose a more just system of refugee reception.
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| 7. |
- Lidén, Gustav, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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The governance of policy integration and policy coordination through joined‐up government : How subnational levels counteract siloism and fragmentation within Swedish migration policy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Regulation and Governance. - : Wiley. - 1748-5983 .- 1748-5991.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern welfare states struggle with fragmented policies and siloed governments, as well as with the need to deal with wicked problems. We argue that addressing such problems from the perspective of central government can be facilitated by notions of joined-up government that, combined with vertical aspects of modern governance, provide a basis for analysis. To embark upon such challenges, we examine policy integration and policy coordination within the complex area of Swedish migration policies in light of the European migrant crisis. Through a content analysis of an extensive qualitative material (interviews and documents), we show that policy integration is weakly associated with joint objectives and decision-making. As a contribution to prior knowledge in the field, we emphasize the unintuitive finding that counteracting siloism and fragmentation in Swedish migration policy is not achieved through coherent governance ranging across tiers, functions, and sectors but mainly at subnational levels through policy coordination relying on a bottom-up approach.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bolin, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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Disagreeing with the nation state : Why some Swedish municipalities refuse refugee reception
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden is often characterized as being a generous country when it comes to allowing immigrants entrance. However, since the national government is dependent on the local level for acceptance of refugees, there is a potential risk that a discrepancy emerges between the number of immigrants accepted at the national level and the number accepted at the local level. In fact, today, a significant number of municipalities hesitates to accept agreements with the government. These municipalities disregard the large flows of refugees that reach Sweden daily and oppose the pressure from Swedish authorities to contribute to the upholding of a continued generous migration policy. To be able to understand the motives of these reluctant municipalities we need to know more about what characterizes them. In this paper, we investigate both the structural and the political patterns of these municipalities and explain how they differ from those that do receive refugees. Drawing from the concepts of immigration control and multilevel governance, we deduce a number of hypotheses about how structural predictors will have an impact on the formation of local policy. Deriving from an extensive new data set of all Swedish municipalities for a handful of years, we outline the characteristics of these cases. Our findings suggest that complete immigration control is not only quantitatively different from a low level of reception, but also qualitatively different. That is, it seems as if some of the mechanisms at work when a municipality refrains from refugee reception altogether are not the same as those resulting in agreements at low levels. Instead, local opinion, expressed as the view towards refugee reception among the established parties, appears to be the factor most consistently showing importance throughout our analyses. One possible interpretation of this might be that while levels of reception, to some extent, are guided by structural prerequisites, such as the economy, the situation in the labour market and the capacity to accommodate refugees, etc., the decision to completely refrain from reception is primarily guided by ideological motives.
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| 10. |
- Bolin, Niklas, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Do Anti-immigration Parties Matter? The Case of the Sweden Democrats and Local Refugee Policy
- 2014
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Political Studies. - : Wiley. - 0080-6757 .- 1467-9477. ; 37:3, s. 323-343
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the increased electoral success of anti-immigration parties, questions regarding whatimpact the parties actually have naturally follow. Previous research has rarely explored thisquestion. Furthermore, within this body of research, one is given different answers. While someargue that anti-immigration parties have made an impact on public policy, others find no suchevidence. This article shows that some of this inconsistency is a consequence of the method-ological strategies that have been employed. Previous studies are either single case studies orcomparisons of a small number of countries. Consequently, different parties in different insti-tutional settings are compared, making it difficult to estimate the actual impact of the party ofinterest. In order to circumvent such methodological problems, this article explores the ques-tion of anti-immigration party impact on a local level and asks if the Sweden Democrats (SD)have managed to influence decisions on refugee reception in Swedish municipalities. Theanalysis shows mixed results. First, while unable to find an independent effect of the size ofthe representation of the SD, it appears that the party’s impact is conditioned by them holdingthe balance of power. Second, the SD’s impact is not dependent upon whether there isright-wing or left-wing rule, although local migration policy is stricter when the main right-wingparty has strong support.
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