TJÄNSTEPERSONSINFLYTANDE -En kvalitativ studie om inflytande och möjligheter till inflytande i miljö- respektive skolområdet

Power and influence in the democratic process is a controversial area. In an effort to contribute to this is the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence that public officials have in the political process and if theories connected to influence can be observed in officials’ statements. We also examined if it differs between two political areas (environment and school). The choice of these two areas is based on the fact that these differ in nature when it comes to technical complexity. The study examines four public administrative officials, two administrators that work in the environmental area and two from the school area. We used semi-structured interviews in which the public officials subjective experience of influence were discussed. The study showed that the public officials in general have the opportunity to influence the political process through key factors such as their expertise, participating in networks and trough certain personal characteristics. We also saw that the public officials differ between the two areas concerning some of these key factors