Unlawful influence in Swedish municipalities: Do social ties matter for bureaucrats’ vulnerability and ability to resist?
Short description
Unlawful influence – including threats, harassment and corruption – poses challenges to local government in Sweden. This project investigates how common such attempts are against frontline bureaucrats in municipalities and whether social ties make them more vulnerable or more resilient. By combining register data, surveys and interviews, the project generates new knowledge on how unlawful influence operates and how it can be prevented.
The aim of the project
Swedish municipalities are responsible for core welfare services and manage substantial public resources. Despite growing concern about unlawful influence – such as threats, violence and corruption aimed at influencing officials’ decisions – we lack systematic knowledge about how widespread the problem is at the local level.
This project studies unlawful influence targeting frontline bureaucrats, such as inspectors and social workers. A central focus is the role of social ties: do close connections to citizens, politicians or local networks increase vulnerability to pressure, or can they instead strengthen resilience and trust?
The study combines administrative register data, large-scale surveys (including survey experiments) and in-depth interviews. By producing systematic evidence on unlawful influence in Swedish municipalities, the project contributes to research on corruption, public administration and democratic governance, and provides knowledge relevant for strengthening integrity in local government.
Researchers
- Agnes Cornell (Principal Investigator), Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg
- Gissur Ó Erlingsson, Professor, Linköping University
- Andrej Kokkonen, Professor, University of Gothenburg.