AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Line Säll, spring semester 2007.Tutor: Susan Marton.?To do things by the rule of law -A study in the discretion of front-line Bureaucrats?This essay has it´s starting-point in the theoretical problem of social science to unite democracy and bureaucracy. The purpose is to illustrate the problems with the discretion of front-line Bureaucrats in a democratic state. The theoretical approach is front-line bureaucracy-theory. Certain characteristics of the work of street-level Bureaucrats makes it impossible to severly reduce discretion.

The purpose of this study is to describe and understand how the principle of the child?s best interest in the asylum process for families with children is interpreted and implemented in practice by the asylum Bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency. Our questions are:?How is the best interest of the child in families with children interpreted by the asylum Bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency??"How are asylum Bureaucrats at the Swedish Migration Agency reasoning about the implementation in practice of the child's best interest in families with children?The essay rests upon semi-structured interviews with eight asylum Bureaucrats at three different asylum units. The interviews are based on an interview guide together with a vignette, which purpose was to see how the interviewees are implementing the best interest of the child in a specific case of a potential application.

This study aims to investigate associations in two areas in Stockholm County with diverse socio-economic conditions. The study intends to examine the impact these differences have on what role the Bureaucrats and politicians in the two areas think that the associations should have. Bureaucrats are those who design guidelines for associations and that is why they have an important role in the conditions of the associations. A comparison between the two areas has been made to see if the requirement in the guidelines for the areas are different according to where the members live. The two areas that have been used to compare the guidelines of associations are Danderyd municipal and the district Spånga-Tensta.

It is estimated that approximately 10 000 people are living in Sweden after having been rejected residence permit or asylum, meaning that they have to hide from the authorities while facing a risk of being deported by means of violence as they do not wish to leave voluntarily.For their existence, a vast number of people employed by the public administration can be expected to contribute to the wellbeing of the hidden people through their professions as Bureaucrats.The Bureaucrats can thereby be expected to be torn between different sets of value systems, roles and obligations towards the state and towards the hidden people.In this master thesis, I examine how five Bureaucrats motivate their acting for the sake of the hidden people in terms of legitimacy, legality and morality in their administration, towards their ethic responsibilities and towards society as a whole.The results show that the Bureaucrats see themselves as saviours of ethical values in an illegitimate administration where economic efficacy and arbitrary decision-making constantly transgresses The Human Rights, ratified by the Swedish Parliament..

The aim of this study is to discuss the implementation of Swedish integration policy from the perspective that public officials, so called front-line Bureaucrats, are the real creators of this policy. The concept of integration is far from unambigous; it can have different meanings depending on the theoretical perspective applied. This give topical interest to the question of how the concept is conceived on the national level versus the implementation level. I also aim to uncover how these front-line Bureaucrats look upon their role as creators of integration policy. My material consists mainly of interviews with front-line bureauctrats.

Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level Bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level Bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level Bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous.

Title: [Frontline Bureaucrats discretion in the transition to Establishment Reform]This essay aims to study discretion among frontline Bureaucrats as an important factor in the integration of immigrants. In contrast to other studies of discretion this essays has its focus on a new establishment reform that has been recently legislated. The theoretical frame is based on the concept of frontline bureaucracy developed by M. Lipsky (2010). In the analysis of the discretion in this specific area I have been inspired by I.

The purpose of this essay was to further develop the discussion around the street-level Bureaucrats and the dilemmas that they meet in their work environment. The paper will try to accomplish this by putting the spotlight on the professional role, the organizational control of the street-level bureaucrat and the effect of society on the work environment. Something that also will be discussed is the well-known difficulty of implementation of new programs and methods, especially when street-level Bureaucrats are involved. The street-level Bureaucrats that this paper focuses on are caseworkers within Försäkringskassan and handle benefits and take decisions about the need for rehabilitation for people who are ill and unable to work.I have used a qualitative method for this study. The empirical material consists of six interviews at two different offices.The main cause of the dilemma of the street-level bureaucrat is that there is a conflict between the human side and the professional role.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how personnel working with asylum cases at the Swedish Migration Board handle their role as administrators of asylum. For the study 7 asylum administrators were interviewed and the analysis was made with influence from the method critical discourse analysis. To understand the themes in the analysis I have used Michael Lipskys theory about street-level Bureaucrats. Main results from the analysis of the interviews were that the street-level Bureaucrats had certain strategies for managing the difficult aspects of the job. The interviews also showed that the participating informants had difficulties with different identity positions..

This study aims to identify the municipalities of Hallands? methods, guidelines and policies in integration concerning new arrivals of children and teenagers. Some of the new arrivals are under the power of Swedish Migration Board and some of them are by a contract handed over to the municipalities. The evaluation is based on Michael Lipskys street-level bureaucracy which puts its focus on the lower level of Bureaucrats meeting with clients. The frame is Skolverkets guideline for education of new arrivals which is more or less a way towards a common policy.

This thesis is a product of research about how implementation issues occur due to the relationbetween Bureaucrats and politicians. Our study treats the democratic dilemma that occurs whenschools are to implement environmental certifications. Through a comparative study we comparetwo schools in Norra Hisingen, a district in Gothenburg municipal where one of the schools iscertificated and one is not. By using theories from top down and bottom up approaches toimplementation we develop key factors that will lead us to answer our research questions.Through text analysis of policy documents and through interviews with Bureaucrats we analyzewhat may be the causes for only one of the two schools to be certificated though Gothenburgmunicipal wish all schools to be. Through our analytical tool we can establish that the policydocuments are well formed according to our top down-theory and that these documents does nothave a major impact on the fact that one school is certificated and one is not.

This study aims to show how teachers talk about their teaching with regards to gender in relation to literature.We have interviewed four teachers of Swedish for upper secondary school to discover how they feel about, and understand, the fact that gender is a factor in the teaching of literature and that they should present to the students literature written by both male and female authors. To analyze the interviews we use Sannersted's (1991) theory about teachers as street-level-Bureaucrats ("närbyråkrater"). He states that teachers are persons who have to follow what politicians have decided but they are fairly free to choose how they do it, but to be able to follow a decision as closely as possible three qualifications have to be met. The teachers have to understand the decision, be able to follow it and want to follow it. We find that the teachers that we have interviewed are aware that they discuss gender issues with their students and they all claim that they present a variation of authors to their students.

The purpose of this study was to understand how social workers experienced working with Addiction Severity Index (ASI) in relation to the goal set by the National Board of Health and Welfare. The method is spread nationwide and therefore it is of great importance to examine how the social workers themselves experience the demands and the resources surrounding ASI. We choose to do a qualitative study interviewing eight social workers at six different occasions. The result was analyzed using Max Weber?s ideal type bureaucracy and Michael Lipsky?s thesis on street-level Bureaucrats.

The aim of this essay is to investigate the implementation of The Social Orientation inSweden. The Social Orientation is a part of the new, one year old, establishment law and isaimed at all newly arrived refugees and immigrants. The aim of the law is to help establish allnew arrivals into the Swedish society by providing knowledge about life in Sweden. Theeducational program is at least sixty hours long and covers: the public authorities in Sweden,laws and regulations, work and education, healthcare, children and family issues in a person?smother tongue.In order to achieve my aim I have chosen two questions: How has the law been implementedin Swedens three counties: Stockholm, Sörmland and Uppsala? What conditions are there fora successful implementation?In order to answer these questions I have used the traditional, ?street-level Bureaucrats? andnetwork perspectives and issues for my study of implementation.

Our study examining how well the guidelines, from Skolverket (School Department), aboutgrades in the course "Samhällskunskap A" are implemented in the Swedish Upper SecondarySchool. The study focus on both teachers and students. To discover which knowledge the bothgroups have, we have used two different methods. The students have answered a survey,which was based on the phrases from the course plan "Samhällskunskap A" about grades. Thesurvey wanted to see how well the students could match the correct phrases with the gradesteps (the Swedish school uses three grade steps).