SOCIAL HÅLLBARHET I OFFENTLIG UPPHANDLING : En studie om offentlig upphandling som politiskt styrmedel

In this essay a quantitative empirical study with qualitative elements is performed. The purposeof the paper is to investigate whether public procurement can be applied as a political instrument. The empirical data consists of a selection of government agencies and how well these government's governing documents have implemented the current government's National Public Procurement Strategy. In order to analyze the degree of implementation, three different implementation theories are applied. The theories applied are implementation from an upside down perspective, implementation from a bottom and up perspective and implementation based on ability, will and understanding. In order to delimit the essay to a reasonable extent, the study aims to focus on how socially responsible public procurement have been included in the governing documents. The question that is aimed to be answered is: to what extent has the objective of socially responsible in public procurement been implemented in the governing documents? The second question is: Is social responsibility more prominent in governing documents that were updated after launching the national public procurement strategy. the third question is: what possible implementation barriers can be identified when implementing the national procurement strategy. The method used in the essay is essentially a quantitative content analysis that is complemented by a qualitative interview survey. The results of the empirical study show shortcomings in the implementation of the selected authorities, which indicates that the national strategy have a weak effect as a political instrument