A firm hand, or an arm’s length : Perspectives on the relationship between local politicians and library administrators

The topic of this study is the relationship between municipal politicians and library managers. By tradition this relationship has been guided by the arm’s length principle which has given the managers ample autonomy. Recent events from 2018 and onward suggest that this relationship is changing. The aim of this study has been to determine the current relationship between local politicians and library managers as perceived by the library managers. Questions posed are: How do library managers perceive their administrative role? How does that administrative role relate to political control? Are these perceptions influenced by the political orientation of the ruling municipal politician, and if so how? The theoretical starting-point is the typological model developed by the american political scientist James Svara. Semistructured interviews with library managers were conducted, and the results show that while the managers perceive their administrative role as subordinated to the municipal politicians their attitude towards political control is that libraries should hold a high degree of autonomy. The conclusion is that there is a gap between the perceived administrative role and the actual administrative role. The library administrators perceive that a relationship between municipal politicians and library managers should be guided by the arm’s length principle and use various arguments and strategies to emphasize this in the day-to-day working relationship with the municipal politicians.