One part of the criticism regarding a democratic deficit in the EU is towards a considered tecnocratic bureacracy - especially in the Committé of the Permanent Representatives (COREPER). However, if the argumentation stands on research that compare the EU with theoretical constructs, how valid can that criticsm be? By relating the formal discretion of the bureacrats in Coreper to the formal discretion of the bureacrats in Swedish ministries this study contributes to the discussion on an empirical level. The research design is thus a qualitative comparison of procedure-manuals from both units. The method is text analyzing: through the lens of the policy cycle (first and second phase) and through the defined concepts `discretion ́ and `control ́. These concepts stem from theoretical contributions by Herman Finer regarding discretion and democratic legitimacy. The main findings show that the permanent representatives hold more opportunities of discretion than the Swedish bureacrats. However, these are well specified and more so compared to the Swedish case. According to the theoretical framework the specification is of most relevance - why democratic legitimacy can be derived. I therefore argue that this specific criticism towards the EU might not be as valid if Sweden is still to be considered an accepted democratic system.

In this study, we examined how social workers through committee described the young person in secure care of youths, and whether there ere any differences between the sexes. The theoretical starting point was the gender perspective and social workers discretion. The aim of our study was to analyze how social workers through committee were describing the youths in law, and if they produced and reproduced eventual gender constructions and norms. Our empirical work was based on 20 LVU court cases, 10 girls and 10 boys. These court cases were examined by using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to find keywords and eventual patterns in writing. The results and the analysis consist of five different themes with some examples from the court cases related to previous research and theories. The results showed differences in the discourses between the sexes. One of the discourses we found was ’victim or perpetrator’, which manifested itself in girls being described as more responsible for their actions rather than having control of their situations, while boys were described as more responsible for their actions. Our ambition was to stimulate interest for upcoming further research. We found that social workers possess a great room for action through regarding the way they chose to write about youths. Therefore, it was important to shed light on the role of the discourse and how it can affect legal certainty.

The goal of this research was to investigate teachers' perceptions of professional discretion and satisfaction related to internal and external factors of curriculum control. Results of the study were intended to provide data to policy makers and school district administrators that could be used in the development and implementation of the curriculum reform process. Middle and high school teachers in a large central Florida school district completed the survey. The survey's six constructs were 1. Influence of Teacher Beliefs 2. Perceptions of Success and Satisfaction 3. Influence of Tests and Curriculum Guides 4. Teacher Control of Pedagogy 5. Leadership 6. Maintaining High Standards The research questions focused on determining the difference in perspectives due to years of teaching experience, level of teaching (middle or high school), and curriculum control category (high, medium, or low). The results revealed there was not significant disagreement among teacher perceptions based on years of teaching experience. However, results indicated significant differences in perceptions based on level of teaching and curriculum control category in regard to the six survey constructs. The construct of leadership revealed significant differences between both levels of teaching and curriculum control categories. Overall, the results indicated a significant relationship among curriculum control policies and effects on teachers' perceptions of professional discretion and satisfaction. The literature on curriculum reform efforts since the 1980s, specifically in the areas of curriculum standards, textbook adoption policies, testing policies and leadership practices, framed the study. The literature review focused on existing research issues within the six constructs and the research questions. The information gained from this study may be used to inform policies, improve teachers' working conditions, and promote teacher and leadership effectiveness. Recommendations for practice were addressed in terms of what policy makers, school district administrators, and individual classroom teachers can and should do to implement and support meaningful curriculum reform. The researcher emphasized that recognizing the professional expertise and knowing the perspective of teachers are key to the development and implementation of an effective curriculum reform process.

Intimate partner violence is an international issue that also exists in Sweden. The elderly on the other hand, can tend to be excluded from this context as the focus in a lot of cases can be on younger people. Violence against elderly can be categorized into five categories which are psychological violence, physical violence, economic/material violence, sexual violence and neglect. Those who work with elderly encounter intimate partner violence against elderly and therefore knowledge about the subject is important. Sweden is one of eight countries that belong to the torontodeclaration, where the aim is to increase awareness of intimate partner violence against the elderly. The purpose of this study is to investigate and discuss the social workers experience in working with elderly people who are exposed to intimate partner violence. In the study, attention is paid to the measures and efforts that exist for the target group and mapping of violence intimate partner violence against elderly. The social workers work with the elderly who are exposed to the violence is also part of the study. Empirical data has been obtained through semi-structured interviews with four social workers within the same Swedish municipality. Furthermore, the empirical data has been analyzed through theories, discretion and ageism. Previous research has also been part of empirical analyses. The results show that there are various measures and efforts against elderly who are exposed to intimate partner violence, but that they are not always adapted to the older target group. For example, roughly half of Sweden's sheltered accommodation for victims of violence can accommodate people with walkers. The results also indicate that mapping intimate partner violence against the elderly is mainly done through a screening form and that it can also be picked up during home visits. Through the results, it is noticed that aid workers feel that working with the target group can be difficult at first, that they can feel unsafe and insecure. They also point out that a difficulty can be that they rarely meet the elderly alone. Finally, it is highlighted that there are more opportunities for social workers in the work with the target group, compared to before, and that intimate partner violence is more talked about in the workplace.

Children whose families live in economic hardship tend not to participate in social activitiesthat involve money. Economically disadvantaged children are described as those who, due toinsufficient financial resources, have difficulty living a life similar to other children in thesame community. Social workers are legally obligated to specifically consider the bestinterests of the child in measures concerning children and to use both the Social Services Actand the Convention on the Rights of the Child in their decisions. Thus, a social worker isobliged to consider the child's rights, the child's perspective, and the child's best interests intheir work. The purpose of this study is to investigate how social workers in financial aid usetheir discretion to protect children's rights in accordance with the four core principles of theConvention on the Rights of the Child. The study employs a qualitative method withsemi-structured interviews to obtain the perceptions of two different professional groups onwhether social workers in financial aid are considered to uphold the four core principles ofthe Convention on the Rights of the Child and whether they believe that social workers usetheir discretion sufficiently to consider children's rights. The collected empirical material wasthen analyzed in various themes connected with previous research and Lipsky's theories ondiscretion and street-level bureaucracy. Research indicates that social workers in financial aidfail to use their discretion to protect the child's rights and to uphold the four core principles ofthe Convention on the Rights of the Child. The study revealed results indicating that socialworkers' decisions regarding children can be influenced by the organization's management, asenior social worker, lack of knowledge, ambiguities in guidelines within the organization,and the absence of child participation in decisions affecting them. Furthermore, it was foundthat social workers' individualized assessments and priorities were crucial in how they choseto use their own discretion. With more opportunities for education on the child's perspectiveand child rights and a developing practice on how children's rights should be considered andapplied in financial aid work, social workers can help prevent more children from becomingvulnerable and experiencing the consequences of such vulnerability. / Barn vars familjer lever i ekonomisk utsatthet tenderar att inte delta i sociala aktiviteter sominkluderar pengar. Ekonomiskt utsatta barn beskrivs vara barn med anledning av otillräckligaekonomiska resurser och har därmed svårigheter med att leva ett likadant liv likt andra barnsom lever i samma samhälle. Socialsekreterare har en skyldighet enligt lag att särskilt beaktabarnets bästa vid åtgärder som rör barn och använda sig av både socialtjänstlagen ochbarnkonventionen vid beslut. En socialsekreterare har därmed skyldighet att beakta barnetsrättigheter, beakta barnperspektivet samt barnets bästa i arbetet. Studiens syfte är attundersöka hur socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd använder sitt handlingsutrymme föratt tillvara barnens rättigheter i enlighet med Barnkonventionens fyra grundprinciper. Studienanvänder sig av en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer för att få de två olikayrkesgruppers uppfattningar om socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd anses leva upp tillbarnkonventionens fyra grundprinciper samt om de anser att socialsekreterare använder sitthandlingsutrymme tillräckligt för att ta hänsyn till barnens rättigheter. Det insamladeempiriska materialet analyserades sedan i olika teman som anknöts med tidigare forskningoch Lipskys teorier om handlingsutrymme och teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater. Undersökningarpekar på att socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd brister i sitt arbete att använda sitthandlingsutrymme för att tillvarata barnets rättigheter samt leva upp till barnkonventionensfyra grundprinciper. Studien fick fram ett resultat som pekade på att socialsekreterarensbeslut rörande barn kan påverkas av organisationens ledning, en förste socialsekreterare,kunskapsbrist, otydligheter i riktlinjer i verksamheten samt inte har barn delaktiga i beslutsom rör dem. Det framkom dessutom att socialsekreterarnas individanpassade prövningar ochprioriteringar var avgörande för hur de väljer att använda sig av sitt handlingsutrymme. Medfler möjligheter till utbildning inom barnperspektivet och barnets rättigheter och enutvecklande verksamhet om hur barns rättigheter ska beaktas och tillämpas i arbetet inomekonomiskt bistånd kan socialsekreterare bidra till att hindra flera barn att bli utsatta och attuppleva konsekvenserna av vad utsattheten för med sig.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka LSS-handläggares upplevelser och erfarenheter av utredning och bedömning av rätten till personlig assistans för vuxna med funktionsnedsättning i Sverige. Genomförandet av studien är en semistrukturerad intervjumetod tillsammans med två vinjetter. Studiens resultat baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex kommunala LSS-handläggare. I studien är de teoretiska utgångspunkterna från ett organisationsteoretiskt perspektiv där vi analyserat vårt material utifrån begreppen handlingsutrymme och gräsrotsbyråkrati.   Resultatet av vår studie visar att LSS-handläggare upplever sitt handlingsutrymme vid bedömning och utredning av rätten till personlig assistans i Sverige som skiftande. Beroende på vilken situation handläggarna är i så har de i vissa situationer möjlighet att vidga sitt handlingsutrymme medan de i andra situationer upplever handlingsutrymmet som begränsat. De situationer där handläggarna har möjlighet att vidga sitt handlingsutrymme är exempelvis i bedömningar där det uppstår ett gränsfall om den enskilde har rätt till personlig assistans. Handläggarna påpekar att de i sådana situationer kan skapa möjligheter i beslutet till både bifall och avslag. Någonting som också påverkar att handlingsutrymmet kan vidgas är handläggarnas tillgång till bra handledning på arbetsplatsen. Det som stramar åt LSS-handläggarnas handlingsutrymme vid bedömning och utredning av personlig assistans är exempelvis att LSS-lagstiftningen ofta upplevs som fyrkantig. Tillgång till praxis påverkar även vidden av handlingsutrymmet då handläggarna inte anser att de kan ta rättssäkra beslut när praxis är otillräckliga. LSS-handläggarnas upplevda dilemman skapas när handlingsutrymmet upplevs som litet och de hamnar i situationer som försvårar deras beslut. / The purpose of this study is to examine LSS-officers' experiences of investigation and assessment of the right to personal assistance for adults with disabilities in Sweden. The implementation of the study is a semi-structured interview along with two vignettes. The results of the study are based on semi-structured interviews with six municipal LSS-officers. The theoretical framework of the study is from an organizational theory perspective where we analyzed our material using the concepts of discretion and street-level bureaucracy. The results of our study show that LSS-officers experience their discretion in the assessment and investigation of the right to personal assistance in Sweden as variable. Depending on the situation, LSS-officers have the opportunity to expand their discretion in some cases, while in other cases they find their discretion limited. Situations where the LSS-officers can expand their discretion arise, for example, in assessments where there is uncertainty about whether the individual has the right to personal assistance. In such cases, LSS-officers note that they can create possibilities in the decision for both approval and rejection. Access to good mentoring at the workplace also affects the ability to expand their discretion. Factors that limit LSS-officers discretion in the assessment and investigation of personal assistance include the perception that the LSS-law is often rigid. Access to case law also affects the extent of discretion, as LSS-officers do not believe they can make legally correct decisions when case law is insufficient. The dilemmas faced by LSS-officers arise when they perceive their discretion as limited and encounter situations that complicate their decision-making.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Agency provides Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to state and local governments, giving them broad flexibility to design and implement community projects. The CDBG program emphasizes that public hearings are a requirement to obtain federal funding at the state and local levels. Also, HUD lists several other public participation methods that can be used in addition to public hearings. Further, the extant literature on public participation emphasizes the prevalent use of one method, public hearings, compared to the use of other more engaging techniques. Despite the availability of different methods that may be more engaging, administrators continue to engage the public through the use of public hearings. This study explores the motivation and identity of public administrators in local government, implementing public participation programs. Using a multi-site case study based on fifteen interviews with officials from various localities across the Commonwealth of Virginia, I found that administrators held onto their identity as public servants but might have had difficulty staying motivated to do public engagement work when they perceived that there were impediments in the work environment. Another interesting finding is that these obstacles created tensions between the public servants and their respective organization, leading to fewer performance outcomes among the administrators. Further, the administrators' characteristics (identity) such as job tenure, rank, education, age, and gender, along with their public service motivation, might have impacted their actions and behavior in the public sector environment. I also found that administrators who wanted to do more, commonly reported they were situated in a work environment that limited their ability to do more. I found that the work environment and the identity (personal characteristics and public service motivation) could influence the public service behavioral outcomes of administrators. The interview data pointed out a complex picture of the tensions existing between the institution and the individual. The research revealed that public administrators often adhered to their role as public servants but were faced with dynamics that interacted with their performances. From these findings, administrators must look pass those informal and formal influences that prevent them from staying engaged with their roles as public servants and find ways to give citizens meaningful opportunities to have input into the government decision-making process. / Doctor of Philosophy / This research sought to discover the public administrators' identities and their motivation for engaging in public participation, along with understanding their roles as public servants. To examine this further, the researcher captured how administrators have engaged the public and how they have documented this engagement in their citizen participation plans. The findings showed that public administrators were committed to their identities as public servants and continued to perform in this capacity despite some of the barriers that may have prevented them from having meaningful engagement opportunities with the public.

The aim of this essay is to study how school counselors describe and cope with the challenges of carrying the psychosocial assignment within school and what they need in order to be able to carry out their assignment. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with school counselors and analyzed using thematic analysis and coping theory. Based on the school counselors' perspectives, the results demonstrate that the psychosocial assignment needs to include a holistic view of the pupil and that the core of the assignment is to work preventatively. The study identified challenges that school counselors face including high workload, lack of resources and a perspective which clashes with the pedagogical perspective, thus leaving the school counselors lonely in carrying their role. To deal with these challenges, school counselors use different coping strategies such as seeking support from colleagues and through external mentoring. To facilitate for the school counselors to carry out their assignment adequately, the study emphasizes the need for trust, legitimacy and discretion.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur socialsekreterare beaktar barnets bästa när ett våldsutsatt barn placeras i familjehem. Därmed har socialsekreterares uppfattning av barnets bästa, hur det tillämpas vid placering av våldsutsatt barn samt huruvida handlingsutrymmet är tillräckligt stort för att kunna beakta barnets bästa undersökts. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna för arbetet är empowerment samt Michael Lipskys definition av gräsrotsbyråkratens handlingsutrymme. Studien utgår ifrån ett kvalitativt angreppssätt i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer mot bakgrund av ett målinriktat urval. Resultatet från intervjuerna har analyserats tematiskt och utgör således grunden för vidare diskussion. Resultatet i studien visar främst på att socialsekreterare tolkar barnets bästa genom att se till barnets skydd och trygghet. Detta tillämpas genom att göra barnet mer delaktig i beslutsprocessen genom att ta hänsyn till barnets önskemål vid placering. Samt ständigt se till barnets specifika situation och därmed ta beslut och överväga faktorer som säkerställer barnets trygghet. Resultatet visade även olika uppfattningar kring socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme där en del ansåg sig ha tillräckligt med handlingsutrymme för att kunna ta beslut för barnets bästa, medan övriga upplevde det motsatta. Samtliga intervjupersoner stod dock eniga i att det främsta som hindrar deras handlingsutrymme är bristen på familjehem. / The aim of this study is to examine how social workers consider the child’s best interest when an abused child is placed in a foster home. Thus, the social workers’ perception of the child’s best interest, how it is considered when placing an abused child in foster care and whether the social worker discretion is large enough to be able to take the child's best interest into consideration has been investigated. The theoretical framework from which the study is based upon is empowerment and Michael Lipsky's definition of the discretion of street-level bureaucrats. The study is assessed using a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample. The results from the interviews have been thematically analyzed and thus form the basis for further discussion. The results of the study mainly show that social workers perceive the best interest of the child by ensuring their protection and safety. This is applied by making the child more involved in the decision-making by taking the child’s desires into consideration when placing the child. Also, by constantly looking at the child’s specific situation and thus making decisions that ensures the child’s safety. The results also showed different perceptions regarding the social worker discretion where some participants felt they had enough discretion to make decisions in the best interest of the child, whereas some participants felt the contrary. However, all participants agreed upon the fact that the main difficulty with their discretion is the lack of foster homes.

Syftet med den här studien har varit att bidra med ökad kunskap om hur skolkuratorer uppfattar möjligheter och hinder att uppmärksamma unga utsatta för våld i en parrelation och hur skolkuratorer beskriver de egna möjligheterna att stödja unga som är eller har varit utsatta för våld i en parrelation. Syftet har även varit att ge ökad kunskap om hur skolkuratorer samverkar med andra professionella kring våld i ungas parrelationer. För att kunna uppfylla studiens syfte har sex kvalitativa intervjuer med skolkuratorer som arbetar inom grundskolan och gymnasiet genomförts. Intervjuerna har analyserats med hjälp av tidigare forskning inom området och de teoretiska begreppen handlingsutrymme och samverkan. Studiens resultat visar att synlighet och tillgänglighet uppfattas vara viktiga faktorer för att kunna uppmärksamma unga utsatta för våld i en parrelation. Tidsutrymmet till aktiviteter där skolkuratorn är synlig och tillgänglig för elever uppfattas som en begränsande faktor för att uppmärksamma unga utsatta för partnervåld. Vidare visar studiens resultat att utformningen av stödjande handlingar till unga som är eller har varit utsatta för våld i en parrelation kan knytas till hur ramarna för det skolkurativa uppdraget uppfattas. Samverkan med andra professionella kring våld i ungas parrelationer framstår vara kontextbunden till skolan som skolkuratorn arbetar på och samverkan med socialtjänsten betraktas som möjlig i olika hög grad av olika skolkuratorer. / The purpose of this study has been to contribute to increased knowledge of how school counselors perceive possibilities and barriers to identify young people who have been subjected to intimate partner violence. The purpose has also been to provide increased knowledge on how school counselors collaborate with other professionals regarding youth intimate partner violence. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, six qualitative interviews with school counselors have been conducted. The interviews have been analyzed with the help of previous research in the field and the theoretical concepts of discretion and collaboration. The study's results show that as a school counselor, being visible and accessible to students is understood to increase the possibilities to identify young people subjected to intimate partner violence. The time available for activities where the school counselor is visible and accessible to students is perceived as a barrier to identifying young people subjected to intimate partner violence. Further, the study's results show that the design of supportive actions for young people who are or have been subjected to intimate partner violence. can be linked to what is within the framework of the school health mission. Collaboration with other professionals regarding youth intimate partner violence appears be context-bound to the school where the school counselor works, and collaboration with social services is considered possible to varying degrees by different school counselors.