How can differences in per capita household electricity consumption across African countries be understood? Based on theories that highlight the importance of democracy and institutional quality for provision of public goods, the aim of the paper is to analyse the degree to which the level of per capita household electricity consumption in African countries can be attributed to the countries’ democratic status and their institutional quality. We rely on regression analysis employing a pooled data set for 44 African countries over the time period 1996–2009. The analysis shows that democracy and institutional quality both have significant positive effects on per capita household consumption of electricity. Our results have implications for how energy sector reforms are promoted in developing countries. At a more general level they illustrate that institution-building policy efforts are relevant also in areas where contemporary debates have tended to primarily centre on economic development, financial prerequisites and ownership issues.

Regeringen stärkte i början av tvåtusentalet arbetet med jämställdhet genom att införa strategin jämställdhetsintegrering i alla politikområden vilket även är metoden som ska ligga till grund för skolans jämställdhetsarbete. Syftet med studien är att utifrån gymnasielärares perspektiv undersöka hur styrdokument såsom skollagen och läroplanen påverkar lärares jämställdhetsarbete i gymnasieskolan. Eftersom skolan är en del av den offentliga förvaltningen och lärarna offentliga tjänstemän och därmed närbyråkrater kommer teorin om närbyråkrater att användas. I och med sin yrkesroll har lärarna till uppgift att verkställa politiskt fattade beslut varpå Lundquist teori om policyimplementering kommer att användas. Eftersom min studie utgår från aktörers perspektiv lämpar sig den kvalitativa metoden fallstudie således väl. Åtta lärare på olika skolenheter på en gymnasieskola i Norrbotten intervjuades. Trots styrdokument som fastställer att alla elever ska ges en likvärdig utbildning visar resultaten av studien i enighet med tidigare forskning att skolan i Sverige inte kan anses vara jämställd. Under intervjuerna framkom skillnader mellan lärarna på de teoretiska programmen och de praktiska, likväl som mellan kvinnor och män. För att lärarna ska kunna arbeta med policyimplementering krävs det att de förstår, kan och vill arbeta med det. Lärarna kan anses vara med benägna att införa jämställdhetspolicy när de anser att behovet finns och adresserar en verklig utmaning. Att policyn är flexibel kan också anses vara någonting positivt då lärarna ges möjlighet att arbeta med jämställdhet utifrån deras egna idéer. Samtidigt är det någonting riskabelt, då inte alla lärare har samma tankar och idéer om hur jämställdhetsarbetet bör bedrivas. Samtidigt som viljan är det som i slutändan tycks vara vad som avgör lärarnas arbete med jämställdhet, är det också det som är svårast att förändra. Dessutom saknas det i princip uppföljning på lärarnas arbete och deras handlingsutrymme är så pass stort att de, om de vill, skulle kunna välja bort arbetet med jämställdhet. För de lärare som både förstår, kan och vill arbeta med jämställdhet är arbetet ändå inte enkelt. Om men det finns styrdokument som fastslår att skolan ska vara jämställd fostrar samhällets normer flickor och pojkar olika redan från födseln. Något som även tyder på att Sverige, som trots att det är ett av de mest jämställda länderna i världen, ändå präglas av normer och beteenden kopplat till kön som resulterar i olika förväntningar.

Currently, politicians, university representatives, scholars and leading NGOs share a strong belief in the ability of educational systems to generate positive attitudes to sustainable development (SD) among citizens, with the idea of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as perhaps the most apparent expression of this conviction. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether ESD might have the intended effects on teacher education students. More specifically, we account for the results from a panel study on the effects of a course on SD held in autumn 2010 at the University of Gothenburg (n = 323) on teacher education students. The surveys consisted of questions about the students’ concerns about various issues, including issues related to SD, and their attitudes towards SD and views of moral obligations to contributing to SD. The study included a control group (n = 97) consisting of students from the teacher-training programme at University West, which had not and did not include ESD. We find positive effects of ESD on almost all attitudes and perceptions, including e.g., personal responsibility in relation to SD and willingness to contribute to SD, while there is no noticeable effect in the control group. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of our results for the idea of ESD in teacher training programmes at Swedish higher education institutions.

Centrum för utbildning och forsknings inom samhällsvetenskaperna (CUFS) fick i juni 2000 uppdraget av Länsarbetsnämnden i Norrbotten att utvärdera den sista fasen, implementeringen, i arbetet med Jämvägenprojektet. Syftet med undersökningen var att undersöka om inställningen till jämställdhet förändrats sedan starten av Jämvägenprojektet och efter genomförd studiecirkel. Rapporten bygger på en jämförelse mellan en enkätundersökning av samtliga anställda inom AMV i Norrbotten 1999 och 2001. Av samtliga anställda inom AMV i Norrbotten deltog i genomsnitt drygt 80 procent i de obligatoriska cirkelträffarna. Närvaron mellan de olika kontoren varierade stort, från 52 procent till 100 procent. En lyckad implementering innebär att resultatet efter genomförandet av ett beslut eller införande av en policy blir det som avsågs när beslutet fattades. För att uppnå en lyckad implementering finns fyra kriterier uppställda av de amerikanska statsvetarna Ham & Hill. För det första måste bakgrunden till beslutet vara tydlig och de som ska genomföra beslutet måste vara motiverade att göra det. För det andra måste den direkta styrningen vara tydlig och rak så att det inte finns oklarheter om var ansvaret ligger. För det tredje måste utomståendes påverkan på dem som ska genomföra beslutet förhindras och för det fjärde måste beslutsfattarna kunna kontrollera implementeringsaktörerna. Det har skett en förändring hos de anställdas inställning till jämställdhet mellan de två mätperioderna. Om skillnaden har skett enbart på grund av cirkelutbildningen går inte att säga men utbildningen har haft betydelse. Det finns en ökad styrka i uppfattningen att vägledning fungerar som ett redskap för att minska den könssegregerade arbetsmarknaden. Även vad gäller synen på jämställdhet i sig har det skett en förändring. Uppfattningen att det krävs en medveten insats för att ändra det befintlliga könsmönstret på arbetsmarknaden har vunnit i styrka; den könsuppdelade arbetsmarknaden måste bekämpas med träget jämställdhetsarbete. Nyckelpersoner för att uppnå en lyckad implementering är cheferna ute på de olika kontoren i länet. Chefen är den person som sätter normen för arbetet och vilka värderingar som är viktiga. Det är därför angeläget att chefen är positivt inställd till Jömvägenprojektet. Det är en kluven bild som cheferna ger i undersökningen. I intervjuer uppger cheferna ett intresse och lägger stor vikt vid Jämvägenprojektet, men i enkätsvaren framkommer en annan bild. Cheferna är den grupp som i stor omfattning anser att jämställdheten redan är förverkligad och att det därför inte finns något behov av ett Jämvägenprojekt. Uppdragsgivare: Länsarbetsnämnden i Norrbottens län

The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of trust-based governance in the public sector. This regarding which governance models constitute the governance tools of trust-based governance, and whether this phenomenon includes any other relevant aspects related to governance. The intentions behind trust-based governance are largely about addressing negative side effects of the kind of governance that has been inspired by New Public Management, with its emphasis on management by objective. These side effects are largely due to the fact that increased requirements for reporting and documentation entailed an administrative burden, which has meant that public sector employees have been forced to spend a lot of time on administrative tasks. With the help of trust-based governance, and its emphasis on trust, reciprocity and civic focus, the Government has therefore intended to reform the governance of the public sector. Although trust-based governance has good intentions, it can be considered that there is uncertainty about which governance models actually constitute its governance tools. In the essay, a qualitative document study of an idea and ideal type analytical kind is therefore carried out, in which relevant documents from the Government´s Delegation of Trust-Based Governance are analyzed. This is supported by governance theory based on New Public Management and four ideal typical governance doctrines, which are considered relevant to the Swedish context. The results of the study show that that management by objective has a central role as a governance model also in trust-based governance, but in a modified form where the goals are more overall, long-term and qualitative. Trust-based governance also means an increased emphasis on network governance and user governance, as well as an effort to balance the values of trust and control. 

This chapter explores how the Swedish state justifies its extractive bargains with Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding communities (RHCs). The conflict over the Kallak/Gállok mine project in northern Sweden serves as an example. The chapter explores the logic underlying the Swedish state’s contemporary extractive bargaining strategies in light of a policy style moulded by historical social democratic politics. A corporatist and consensus-oriented policy style and a productivist approach assuming win-wins between social rights, equality and economic growth permeated historical Swedish bargains. Currently, Sweden justifies its bargains with climate benefits, but the former social democratic legacy created path dependencies which continue to shape extractive bargains today. While this approach has served the needs of the industry, the state and the working class, it severely compromises the needs of Indigenous Sámi RHCs. Applied in a pro-extractivist political economy with little concern for Indigenous rights, it maintains and reinforces social injustices.

Natural resource (NR) exploitation often gives rise to conflict. While most actors intend to manage collectively used places and their NRs sustainably, they may disagree about what this entails. This article accordingly explores the origin of NR conflicts by analysing them in terms of competing pathways to sustainability. By comparing conflicts over mine establishments in three places in northern Sweden, we specifically explore the role of place-based perceptions and experiences.

The results indicate that the investigated conflicts go far beyond the question of metals and mines. The differences between pathways supporting mine establishment and those opposing it refer to fundamental ideas about human–nature relationships and sustainable development (SD). The study suggests that place-related parameters affect local interpretations of SD and mobilisation in ways that explain why resistance and conflict exist in some places but not others. A broader understanding of a particular conflict and its specific place-based trajectory may help uncover complex underlying reasons. However, our comparative analysis also demonstrates that mining conflicts in different places share certain characteristics. Consequently, a site-specific focus ought to be combined with attempts to compare, or map, conflicts at a larger scale to improve our understanding of when and how conflicts evolve. By addressing the underlying causes and origins of contestation, this study generates knowledge needed to address NR management conflicts effectively and legitimately.

This paper compares how forest ecosystem service–related policies are integrated in different national European forest governance contexts. Efforts to achieve policy integration at the EU and national levels are often described in terms of limited success. Our analysis of forest, energy/bioeconomy, climate, and conservation policies suggests that notions of progress or failure merit careful assessment. Combining theories of policy integration (PI), environmental policy integration (EPI), and policy coherence, we argue that integration outcomes depend on the combined effects of the degree and nature of PI, EPI, and multilevel coherence in the context of the prevailing forest governance system. The nature of the interdependencies, specifically anticipated synergies, and the scope of FES-related climate objectives, are crucial. Realizing the range of FES-related objectives entails safeguarding objectives not synergistically aligned with economic aims. Failures to safeguard biodiversity and regulating and cultural ecosystem services in the process of integration may have far-reaching consequences.

This Special Section explores the interplay between Indigenous peoples, industry, and the state in five proposed and active mining projects in Canada and Sweden. The overall aim is to identify factors shaping the quality of Indigenous community-industry-state interactions in mining and mine development. An ambition underlying the research is to develop knowledge to help manage mining related land-use conflicts in Sweden by drawing on Canadian comparisons and experience. This paper synthesizes the comparative research that has been conducted across jurisdictions in three Canadian provinces and Sweden. It focuses on the interplay between the properties of the governance system, the quality of interaction and governance outcomes. We combine institutional and interactive governance theory and use the concept of governability to assess how and why specific outcomes, such as mutually beneficial interaction, collaboration, or opposition, occurred. The analysis suggests there are measures that can be taken by the Swedish Government to improve the governability of mining related issues, by developing alternative, and more effective, avenues to recognize, and protect, Sámi rights and culture, to broaden the scope and increase the legitimacy and transparency of the EIAs, to raise the quality of interaction and consultation, and to develop tools to actively stimulate and support collaboration and partnerships on equal terms. Generally, we argue that Indigenous community responses to mining must be understood within a larger framework of Indigenous self-determination, in particular the communities’ own assessments of their opportunities to achieve their long-term objectives using alternative governing modes and types of interactions.

This article investigates the dual role - exemplified by the ideal-types of the consumer and the citizen - individuals' face in contemporary environmental policy. As crowding-out theory highlights the implications of using ‘wrong' incentives or controlling means, examining the match between policy and those value-systems guiding individuals' decision-making process in practice should indeed be a relevant undertaking. Sweden provides the empirical example for the article, in which a text analysis of policy documents is compared with the results of a mail-out survey to 4000 individuals in four different counties. The article finds that external motivations are perceived as being highly relevant for the promotion of ecological sustainability in Sweden and, thus, that the notion of the consumer-role as guiding individuals' behaviour in the environmental field is rather strong. However, at the same time people tend to ascribe the motivational values included in the Self-transcendence cluster (altruism) a far greater importance as guiding principles in life than the opposing values of Self-enhancement (egoism), indicating that the citizen-role indeed is important to account for in policy-making. Hence, clearly there is a mismatch between Sweden's contemporary policy documents and the general value orientation held by Swedish people in general.

This article investigates the dual role – exemplified by the ideal types of the consumer and the citizen – individuals face in the contemporary environmental policy context. As crowding-out theory highlights the implications of using the ‘wrong’ incentives, examining the match between policy and the value systems guiding individuals' decision-making process in practice is a relevant undertaking. Sweden provides the empirical context for the article, in which official environmental policy-discourse in Sweden is compared with the results of a mail-out survey to 4,000 individuals in four different counties. It is suggested that external motivations are perceived as highly relevant for the promotion of ecological sustainability, so the consumer element as a motivating feature of individuals' behaviour in the environmental field is indeed of considerable importance. However, at the same time people tend to ascribe far greater importance to the motivational values included in the self-transcendence cluster (altruism) as guiding principles in life than to the opposing values of self-enhancement (egoism), indicating that the citizen-role is also important to take into account in policy design. It is concluded that there is a mismatch between the content of Sweden's policy documents and the general value orientation held by the Swedish citizenry.

The fact that interventions take place on dubious grounds is not a new phenomenon, but it isan area that is constantly interesting to study as the forms of foreign and security policy areconstantly changing. The Russian intervention in Georgia in 2008 is a formative crossroad forRussia's foreign and security policy. Since then, Russia motivates the Russian interventions,in other sovereign states, by referring to the protection of its own citizens. This studydemonstrates how Russia uses securitization theory as part of its foreign and security policy.By referring to the protection of its own citizens in the intervened state, Russia seekslegitimacy for the Russian interventions. Russia is constructing a threat to Russian citizens,which aims to legitimize Russian action to the international community. The study analyzesthe UN Security Council's meeting records from the Georgia War 2008 and the CrimeanCrisis 2014 based on the Copenhagen School's securitization theory. The analysis examineshow Russia argues that there is a threat to the Russian population in Georgia and Ukraine,during their statements in the Security Council. The study also examines how Russia justifiesits actions and how the other states in the Security Council perceive the stated threat and theRussian measures. The results of the analysis clearly sheds light on how Russia construct athreat, how Russia repeatedly justifies its actions and how the member states of the SecurityCouncil criticize the Russian actions. The Russian action is not perceived as legitimate by theSecurity Council, which is required for the securitization to be considered successful, butthere are clear signs that Russia has conducted a security attempt in both Georgia in 2008 andUkraine in 2014. Because of the many similarities between the cases, the study also shows atrend over time, which justifies the conclusion that Russia uses securitization as part of its foreign and security policy. 

It is widely assumed that stakeholder participation has great potential to improve the perceived legitimacy of natural resource management (NRM) and that the deliberative-democratic qualities of participatory procedures are central to the prospects of success. However, attempts to measure the actual effects of deliberation on the perceived legitimacy of participatory NRM are rare. This article examines the links between deliberation and legitimacy in participatory NRM empirically by tracing the determinants of stakeholders’ level of policy support and their views about procedural fairness. The study uses statistical methods to analyse survey data from a state-led initiative to develop new plans for ecosystem-based coastal and marine management through a participatory approach in five coastal areas in Sweden. We find that the perceived quality of deliberation had a positive impact on these aspects of legitimacy. However, both policy support and perceived procedural fairness were mainly driven by instrumental-substantive considerations rather than deliberative-democratic qualities of the process.

Vägvisaren är en handlingsplan för Norrbottens utveckling inför 2000-talet och markerar slutfasen i utvecklingsprojektet Strategi 95. Projektet har gemensamt drivits av Norrbottens läns landsting, Kommunförbundet i Norrbotten och Länsstyrelsen i Norrbottens län. Även Högskolan i Luleå (nuvarande Luleå tekniska universitet) och Länsarbetsnämnden har medverkat. Denna rapport kan ses som en första tentativ uppföljning av Vägvisaren. Uppdragsgivare: Landstinget, Kommunförbundet, Länsstyrelsen och Länsarbetsnämnden i Norrbottens län

Denna uppsats syftar till att forska kring styrningen över skolan i Sverige respektive Finland. Detta avseende om styrningen skiljer sig mellan länderna och i sådant fall på vilket sätt, samt se om det finns något samband mellan styrning och likvärdig utbildning. Styrning över skolan handlar om vem som bestämmer över de olika delarna, och hur skolverksamhet organiseras. Detta ämne uppmärksammades genom att Finland sedan många år legat i topp, bland PISAS undersökningar om elevernas prestationer och landets likvärdighet mellan skolorna. Uppsatsen genomförs därför utifrån en kvalitativ idé- och idealtypsanalys, utifrån relevanta nationella styrdokument om svensk respektive finsk styrning över skolan. Detta med stöd från teorin om fyra styrdoktriner och direkt – indirekt styrning, som förklarar hur styrning går till. Studiens resultat visar på att bägge länder präglas av flera styrdoktriner, däribland mål- och resultatstyrning med övergripande formulerade mål och riktlinjer om skolan, nätverkstyrning där samverkan mellan aktörer och kommuner underlättar för samhällets delaktighet samt brukarstyrning där medborgare får inflytande på olika sätt. Däremot skiljer sig graden av enighet med styrdoktrinerna mellan länderna och hur långt länderna dragit gränsen för inflytande.

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) represents a comprehensive approach to better govern the environment that also illustrates the collaborative trend in policy and public administration. The need for stakeholder involvement and collaboration is strongly articulated, yet how and for what purposes collaboration would be effective remains largely untested. We address this gap by developing and evaluating a set of hypotheses specifying how certain patterns of collaborations among actors affect their joint ability to accomplish EBM. Content analyses of management plans drawn from five EBM planning processes in Sweden are combined with analyses of the collaborative networks through which these plans have been developed. Our results indicate that system thinking and the ability to integrate across different management phases are favored by collaborations between different kinds of actors, and by project leaders being centrally located in the networks. We also find that dense substructures of collaboration increase the level of specificity in the plans in regards to explicating constraints on human activities. Having many collaborative ties does however not enhance the overall level of specificity. Our results also show that different network characteristics can give rise to similar EBM outcomes. This observed equifinality suggests there is no single blueprint for well-performing collaborative networks. 

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has become a key instrument of contemporary environmental policy and practice. Given the increasingly important role of EBM, there is an urgent need for improved analytical approaches to assess if and to what extent EBM has been accomplished in any given case. Drawing on the vast literature on EBM, we identify five key ecosystem aspects for assessment. By linking these aspects to four phases of management, we develop an interdisciplinary, analytical framework that enables a high-resolution and systematic assessment of the degree of specificity and integration of ecosystem aspects in an EBM. We then apply the framework to evaluate five coastal EBM initiatives in Sweden, four on the Baltic coast and one on the west coast. Our results demonstrate our framework’s usefulness for in-depth and continuous assessments of processes aiming for EBM, and also provide an empirical basis for inferences about the key challenges for successful EBM.

This paper approaches provision of affordable and reliable electricity in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a case of public good provision. It aims to contribute to our understanding of how regime type and the quality of implementing institutions within political systems affect the prerequisites for successful electrification in SIDS. More specifically, we analyse the independent and interdependent effects of level of democracy and control of corruption on per capita household electricity consumption in SIDS, using data from 34 SIDS over the period 1996–2009. The results show that although the independent effects of level of democracy and control of corruption are sensitive to model specification, these two factors do have an interdependent impact on per capita household electricity consumption: democratization has positive effects on provision of electricity to the general population only when there is a certain level of corruption control in place. The results imply a) that it is important for policy actors to acknowledge the interaction between regime type and the quality of implementing institutions, and b) when planning electrification projects in SIDS, it is necessary to have information about the social and political context in order to design the most effective projects.

Syftet med den här studien är att studera vilka förutsättningar tjänstemän på Migrationsverket har, för att implementera regeringens beslut om obligatorisk samhällsintroduktion. Sedan 1 oktober 2021 är det en obligatorisk policy, för alla som ansöker om asyl för första gången. Metoden som använts i denna studie är en kvalitativ fallstudie, där datainsamlingen skett i form av semistrukturerade samtalsintervjuer med fem respondenter. Med hjälp av Lundquist modell och aspekterna ”förstå, kan och vill” undersöktes förutsättningarna förimplementeringen av samhällsintroduktionen (Lundquist, 1992). Lipskys teori om närbyråkrater har använts för att förklara hur handlingsutrymmet hos närbyråkrater kan bidra till ett annat utfall än vad som egentligen är tänkt av de som styr (Lipsky, 2010). Till hjälp att besvara syftet ställdes följande forskningsfrågor:

– Hur förstår tjänstemännen uppdraget från regeringen angående samhällsintroduktion?

– Upplever tjänstemännen att de kan utföra sitt uppdrag?

– Hur betydelsefull anser tjänstemännen att policyn samhällsintroduktion är?

I resultatet framgår följande: Samtliga respondenter har god förståelse av syftet och målet med samhällsintroduktion. Det finns även vilja bland tjänstemännen att genomföra uppdraget som de fått av regeringen. Det är tydligt att de som arbetar med policyn tycker den är meningsfull. Däremot finns det brister när det handlar om förmågan att implementera policyn. Det finns svårigheter och otydligheter som behöver förbättras. Det framkommer även att tjänstemännen har ett visst handlingsutrymme vilket kan bidra till att policyn får olika utfall.

In a representative democracy, voting in the general elections is a democratic right and turnout is an important indicator of whether the democratic system is doing well or whether there is a distrust of a political system. Sweden generally has a high voter turnout in the general elections, but Haparanda municipality stands out with by far the lowest voter turnout in the country. A low turnout in the general elections can lead to poorer representativeness and lead to legitimacy problems for political decision-making. The essay examines known contextual factors that, ac- cording to election research, explain low turnout in Haparanda. Furthermore, a comparison is made with Norrbotten's municipalities and Swedish border municipalities with the aim of find- ing if there is any clear indicator that can explain the low turnout. The comparison shows that Haparanda has one of the lowest average disposable incomes and a clearly higher proportion of foreign-born citizens than the other compared municipalities. Therefore, a comparison is also made of the voter turnout between Haparanda and other municipalities with an equal proportion of foreign born. The two indicators foreign-born citizens and disposable income are contextual factors that, according to previous research, affect voter turnout in a negative direction and that give Haparanda an uphill battle in the coming election year unless targeted investments are made to increase voter turnout in the municipality with Sweden's lowest voter turnout.

Public participation in local water councils is one method to involve different actors in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. In this study we investigate which beliefs explain why the public participate and also how motives to participate are related to willingness to comply with decisions related to the water management framework. In total 910 respondents answered a web survey regarding their participation in the council work. Structural equation modelling was conducted with willingness to comply and motives to participate as the main dependent latent constructs. Other included latent constructs were perceived need for change, fairness, trust, and social- and personal norms. The results show that motives to participate did not have an effect on willingness to comply. Perceived need for change had indirect effects on nearly all latent constructs in the model and personal norms and social norms (through personal norms) had an effect on willingness to comply. The results are discussed in the context of water management methods.

Review of Anarchy and the Environment edited by J. Samuel Barkin and George E. Shamaugh. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999. ISBN 0 7914 4183 0

Review of Krantz Lindgren, Petra: Att färdas som man lär? : om miljömedvetenhet och bilåkande. 2001

Review of: Protecting the commons. A framework for resource management in the Americas Edited by Joanna Burger, Elinor Ostrom, Richard B. Norgaard, David Policansky and Bernard D. Goldstein, Island Press, Washington DC, 2001, ISBN 1-55963-738-2

Review ofPeter Rutland (ed.), Business and the State in Contemporary Russia. Oxford and Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001

The role of common property in industrialised society raises a number of questions relevant to constitutional and democratic theory and policy. These questions are discussed here with reference to the current situation of the Swedish Forest Commons. It is shown that commons which have survived for more than one hundred years have difficulties in handling the entrenchment of the principles of liberal democracy, even though their existence is ultimately protected by the liberal democratic state. With reference to Giddens' (1984) theory of structuring and Kiser and Ostrom's (1982) meta-theoretical framework, this article challenges the theory that the constitution forms an institutional hierarchy by restraining collective and operational rules, suggesting rather that lower level rules change and adapt independently. It subsequently tackles the problem of how to identify appropriately the constitution of the commons. Finally it stresses that, despite the fact that the State (the Leviathan [2] ) guarantees the existence of the commons, one of their means of survival is to keep away from the State.

An important task for policy evaluation is to develop methods that are based on the fact that political power is fragmented and that every policy area is complex. This article demonstrates, using an empirical example, how different strands of the policymaking process are related to different logics of evaluation. Also discussed is how these differences may result in quite opposite conclusions about the possible failure or success of single programmes. However, it is concluded that policy research does not have to abandon the idea of rationality and adopt a more postmodern or hermeneutic line of analysis. Policy evaluation is still, it is argued, a matter of finding relevant units of analysis, and in contemporary society these units are networks rather than political-administrative entities. Thus, in order to be able to scrutinize and understand such processes of policy creation, policy evaluation must adopt a non-hierarchical attitude and this requires a bottom-up methodology.

Contemporary western societies can be described as negotiated economies, as multi-actor societies with fuzzy borders between public and private organizations and institutions. In this article it is argued that if we aim at understanding the processes of policy-making, we have to start our investigations from a point where we do not unreflectively assume that political administrative hierarchy prevails. The relevance of formal political institutions has to be proved, not taken for granted. Adopting a naive `stage-model' of the policy-making process, however, may lead to anticipating reality, or replacing empirical findings with political administrative norms. This is due not only to the history of political science, with its focus on formal institutions, but also to the fact that hierarchy is a human way of simplifying a complex environment. The implementation structure approach is suggested as an alternative methodological device for conducting a nonhierarchical implementation analysis to circumvent this problem. The approach provides a fruitful point of departure for a broad discussion of alternative ways of achieving constitutional order in society.