298 Översikter och meddelanden Is the 'Lackey-controller' Model an Innovation in

This paper deals with a new pattern of relation-ship which has evolved between politics and bu-reaucracy that has emerged in recent years in Swedish local government. The paper attempts to demonstrate that the way in which decisions are arrived at and implemented raise serious doubts about the legitimacy of local government decision-making. The social costs of decisions made according to the model outlined in this pa-per, are high and put a strain on the public budget which already faces numerous allocative and distributive failures. Moreover, it aggravates the lack of confidence which charcterizes current public attitude towards the political system. The paper starts with a case which illustrates this new pattern of making and implementing a decision in a local government. On the basis of the case study, the 'lackey-controller ' model is presented in the second section. The third sec-tion takes up the wider political science aspects of the model. The concluding section takes up some implications of such a model for decision-making. Bureaucrat turned lobbyist About seven years ago the Mayor (Chairman of the municipal executive committee) of Umeå at-tended a meeting at the County Administration Board where the issue of a bypass for the present European Highway — E4 — was discussed. All those present at the meeting felt that the location of the E4 at present running through the central business district, did add to traffic problems in the city area. However, none except the Mayor felt the need of building a bypass in the immedi-ate future. Bearing in mind the size of the mu-nicipality (then a population under 100 000) and many uncertain factors with regards to the future potential of city growth it was generally felt that the decision to build a bypass should be deferred to around 2010. Umea 's growth since the 1960s Statsvetenskapl ig Tidskrift 1998, årg 101 nr 3 has been mainly determined by the expansion o