<p>The objective of this thesis was to investigate factors that influence local government implementation. The study is a comparative case study between two local governments in Sweden; Hässleholm and Landskrona. Primarily the thesis aimed to look at the conditions faced by those implementing a new government directive aimed at supporting women who face violence, and their children who bear witness, by focusing on three key aspects for successful implementation: Implementers level of understanding, knowledge and will to implement decisions. Material in the form of documents and 14 interviews with key actors in the two authorities constitute the empirical foundation of the analysis. According to the results, are the two local governments pretty equal in achieving their projectgoal but the local government of Hässleholm had better policy-making, policy-design and policy process. This difference in outcome between the two authorities could not fully be explained by the three investigated dimensions since the difference between the two authorities were rather limited in this respect: both authorities scored quite high on implementers understanding, knowledge and will to implement decisions. This does not say that understanding, knowledge and will are not important factors, rather it shows that also other factors can affect the outcome.</p>

The objective of this thesis was to investigate factors that influence local government implementation. The study is a comparative case study between two local governments in Sweden; Hässleholm and Landskrona. Primarily the thesis aimed to look at the conditions faced by those implementing a new government directive aimed at supporting women who face violence, and their children who bear witness, by focusing on three key aspects for successful implementation: Implementers level of understanding, knowledge and will to implement decisions. Material in the form of documents and 14 interviews with key actors in the two authorities constitute the empirical foundation of the analysis. According to the results, are the two local governments pretty equal in achieving their projectgoal but the local government of Hässleholm had better policy-making, policy-design and policy process. This difference in outcome between the two authorities could not fully be explained by the three investigated dimensions since the difference between the two authorities were rather limited in this respect: both authorities scored quite high on implementers understanding, knowledge and will to implement decisions. This does not say that understanding, knowledge and will are not important factors, rather it shows that also other factors can affect the outcome.