Policy Professionals in Swedish Politics

For three years, three researchers and two research assistants have surveyed and interviewed a group of people who are remarkably invisible in research. it's remarkable since it is a category of people which is growing in numbers and has direct access to the politicians in the Swedish government. The group has been named policy professionals and earlier this week the research results were presented at the seminar Makt utan mandat (in Swedish).

Stefan Svallfors, professor of sociology at the Institute for Future Studies, has worked with Christina Garsten, Professor of Anthropology and Bo Rothstein, Professor of Political Science, and the research assistants Björn Werner and Niels Selling.

The policy professionals are people employed by different organizations in order to affect policy and politics – rather than elected to office. It is a group that has grown in numbers and importance. The policy professionals are found in organizations such as government agencies, political parties, parliament, interest organisations, think-tanks, and lobbying organizations. The carry job titles such as political secretary, political advisor, research officer, consultant, etc. A thorough survey shows that the group currently comprises at least 1 500 people.

Some ninety people were interviewed and the researchers also studied a group of them at "politicians week" which takes place every year in Visby.

The policy professionals are described as a group of highly skilled, loyal and dedicated people. People who want to bring about social change. However, they don't seek to put their knowledge and commitment to use as an elected member of the parliament. Why not? Because they don't want to be exposed to media scrutiny and because the important political posts seem too difficult to reach.

The research results are presented in the book Makt utan mandat. Policyprofessionella i svensk politik. They were presented and discussed at a seminar on April 20th which was filmed by SVT Forum.

Some of the results were summarized in an article in Dagens Nyheter.

The research team discovered that that the group of policy professionals look very different in different countries in Europe. In some countries, the number of policy professionals is bigger than the elected representatives, while in other countries hardly any at all. In a follow-up project, Stefan Svallfors will study the policy professional in an international context.