Den representativa demokratin och kompetenskraven : En studie av kompetensnivå och kompetenskrav på kommunpolitiker

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies). In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into “soft” competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and “hard” competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience). The demands for competence mentioned in the opinion-poll are both “soft” and “hard”: 62 % of the employees put demands of “hard” competence skills on the politicians. 61 % of the politicians put demands of “soft” competence skills on themselves. The interviewed respondents say that certain skills are needed for a certain political mission. I consider the demands for competence as rather high according to the result. The local politicians are not, according to the opinion-poll, having the appropriate competence skills, though many of the respondents (56) answered that they have the competence to a certain degree. It is also noticeable that 33 out of 81 persons say that the employees are only having the competence needed to a certain degree. I consider the level of competence among the local politicians rather low according to the result. The results from the investigations of the demands for competence and the level of competence were put into a model with different outcomes depending on if the level of competence and the demands for competence are high or low. The result from high demands for competence and a level of competence not answering fully to those demands is that these high demands of political skills may put a pressure on the politicians, which may lead to a higher level of competence, an increased quality on the local politics, create a higher degree of confidence in the politicians from the society and an increased interest in political participation, but the high demands could also lead to a feeling of incompetence among the politicians, and that less people will take interest in participating in politics as they wont consider themselves having the demanded skills. So increased demands of competence may lead to both quality and elitism. The non-existing demands of competence of today supports increased amateurism among the local decision makers, and an increase in the rule of experts. If a number of demands would be formalized they could on the other hand create barriers for marginalized groups participation in politics