Democratic Legitimacy by Performance? Manager Data from Sweden, 2012

The fundamental idea of this comparative research project is to investigate the significance of local governments' service delivery and performance as a basis for the legitimacy they acquire. Through a combination of extensive survey analysis and case studies, the project investigates local elected representatives', administrative staffs' and citizens' perceptions of local government input and output based legitimacy in two different national contexts (Norway and Sweden). Input legitimacy will depart from the values of liberal democracy and measures like trust in elected representatives, belief in the importance of transparency and similar procedural characteristics, while output legitimacy will be based in the actors view on corruption, discrimination and similar violations of the principle of impartiality as well as service satisfaction, view on service flexibility and efficiency. We analyze to what extent legitimacy generated at the output side of the political system (or by performance) supports more traditional forms of legitimacy based in democratic representation and accountability or, conversely, whether output based legitimacy poses a challenge to the latter. Focus is on the consequences of public management reform and governance on public support for traditional forms of input based democratic government.

本比较研究项目的核心主旨，在于探究地方政府服务供给与履职绩效作为其获取合法性之基础的重要意义。本项目结合大规模调研分析与案例研究方法，针对挪威与瑞典两个不同国家语境，探究地方民选代表、行政人员与普通民众对地方政府基于投入与产出的合法性的认知状况。其中，投入合法性以自由民主的价值理念为核心依托，衡量维度涵盖对民选代表的信任程度、对透明度等程序特征重要性的认同；产出合法性则以行为主体对腐败、歧视等违反公正原则的行为的评判，以及服务满意度、对服务灵活性与效率的评价为构建基础。本研究将分析：政治系统产出端（或通过履职绩效）所生成的合法性，在多大程度上能够支撑以民主代议与问责制为核心的传统合法性形式；反之，基于产出的合法性是否会对后者构成挑战。本研究的核心关注方向，为公共管理改革与治理模式对民众支持传统投入型民主政府形式所产生的影响。