Small Swedish politicians vs.press, bureaucrats, voters
Local elected officials don't want to share the power and influence.
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Male and female local politicians feel equally influential, and a large proportion of them want to reduce the influential power of journalists and public officials. These are two conclusions reached in a politician survey presented by researchers at the University of Gothenburg. The study included almost 10,000 municipal politicians.
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In 2008-2009, researchers at the University of Gothenburg asked all Swedish elected politicians serving in a municipal or county council to complete a questionnaire. On a zero to ten scale, local politicians rated municipal boards and their chairpersons on top after citizens and, lowest, journalists.
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The responses also show that female and male municipal politicians feel equally influential. "We see the same pattern at the party level - male and female council members feel equally influential regardless of party affiliation," said Anders Sundell, Political Science doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg.
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Nearly half of the politicians feel that citizens should be granted more power. About the same proportion, 44%, would like municipal officials to become less influential, while 41% feel this way about journalists, despite their already low rating. Sundell noted that amateur, part time politicians were eager to remove influential power from public officials while professional, full-time politicians felt this way about journalists.
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