Erik Lundberg

Dalarna University · School of Culture and Society

Many countries face growing challenges of democratic governance from political polarizationand the increasingly complex nature of policy problems. The question is then how can governments build consensus and confer legitimacy on policy proposals in an environment where negotiating agreement among competing interests is increasingly difficult? In th...

Extreme right-wing violence has resulted in an intense academic debate on how democratic actors can respond to movement on the extreme right. This article explores how various types of CSOs perceive their role, interest, and willingness when it comes to counteracting right-wing extremism. Building on a theoretical framework that makes visible a var...

I den här texten vill vi belysa i vilken mån och på vilket sätt ett demokratiskt utanförskap finns i Sverige. Vi gör det genom att rikta blicken mot några för demokratin grundläggande beteenden och attityder såsom politiskt deltagande, social tillit och politiskt förtroende. Avslutningsvis reser vi ett antal frågor om de utmaningar som ligger framf...

A recurring claim in the literature is that civic engagement in voluntary associations is crucial for the formation of a variety of interpersonal attitudes, such as social trust, tolerance, and intolerance. In this article, we study the role of membership in voluntary associations and volunteer work in the development of anti-immigrant attitudes am...

This article studies recent trends in the composition and uses of Swedish commissions of inquiry in preparing policy for the government. For much of the 20th century, commissions with representatives of major parliamentary parties and other policy stakeholders served as an arena of negotiation and compromise between the government, the opposition p...

This article expands on the understanding of the role civil society organisations (CSOs) play in counteracting right-wing extremism. Drawing on central strands in the defending democracy literature, this article introduces a typology to classify the responses of CSOs to right-wing extremism. The typology takes into account the distinction between t...

Politiska förslag kan tas fram på olika sätt. Tillväga­ gångssättet får konsekvenser både för förslagens innehåll och för vilka som ställer sig bakom dem. Såväl politiska kompromisser som implemente­ring av beslut kan underlättas eller försvåras beroende av hur förslagen bereds. De under­ lag som tas fram kan också skifta i kvalitet. I Sverige betr...

The school is often emphasized as the societal institution with a universal mandate for promoting democratic values such as tolerance among the younger generation. This study explores the role of a positive school context for tolerance among Swedish students between 14 and 20 years old, simultaneously taking into account competing explanations such...

The school is often emphasized as the societal institution with a universal mandate for promoting democratic values such as tolerance among the younger generation. This study explores the role of a positive school context for tolerance among Swedish students between 14 and 20 years old, simultaneously taking into account competing explanations such...

School is often ranked highly among social agents that are central to the development of various citizenship values and norms in younger members of society. In this paper, we examined the impact of two dimensions of school climate on changes in social trust among adolescents over time, namely relationships and safety. Using a series of latent chang...

In contribution to current debates on the changing roles and responsibilities of civil society in welfare state arrangements, I examined the participation of various types of civil society organizations in national welfare policymaking in Sweden between 1958 and 2012. Drawing upon an extensive dataset of over 1400 civil society, state, and for-prof...

Den här studien handlar om hur toleransen utvecklas under ungdomsåren från 13–28 år. Studien ger ledtrådar om när toleransen förändras och är mest påverkbar.

The belief that people are generally fair and trustworthy has generated plenty of scholarly attention in recent decades, particularly in the Scandinavian countries, which are often known for high levels of social trust. This article draws attention to the current discussion in the literature on whether social trust is a stable cultural trait marked...

Consulting interest groups is commonplace in the preparation of policies by democratic governments. It is often assumed that interest groups participate in consultations primarily for the purpose of influencing policy. This article goes beyond this simplified claim and empirically explores the role of consultations from the vantage point of interes...

This article analyzes the recurrent “erosion thesis” in the governance literature, arguing that bureaucratic or procedural public-sector institutions have come to play a less significant role in public-policy formation. Evidence from the Swedish policy-making institutions referred to as “governmental commissions” and adoption of the perspective of...

Governance networks (GNs) are theorized as institutions for state–civil society interaction with important merits as well as shortcomings for effective and democratic governance. Here we compare GNs with a far less researched type of state–civil society interaction, the Swedish governmental commission (GC), critically discussing them in terms of or...

During the last decade, the EU has had an explicit strategy to include civil society organizations (CSOs) in European public policy. However, the extent to which domestic CSOs are oriented towards the EU in their policy interests and strategies is influenced by various factors. This article examines to what extent and in what ways CSOs acknowledge...

Från år 1979 fram till idag har de politiska partierna sammanlagt förlorat mer än 80 procent av sina medlemmar. Den här uppsatsen undersöker de svenska partiorganisationernas strategier och agerande i skuggan av de senaste decenniernas sjunkande medlemstal. Detta görs genom att undersöka: 1) Hur ledande partiföreträdare förhåller sig till partierna...

To what extent does the government selection process practised in public consultations promote or hinder pluralism in the policy-making process? This article addresses this question by exploring and analysing the characteristics of voluntary organizations invited to public consultations. Evidence is drawn from the formerly corporatist Scandinavian...

This article focuses on the changing level of participation of voluntary organisations in the policy process between 1964 and 2009 and its implication for the role played by voluntary organisations to the state. Drawing on data from the remiss procedure – one of the most understudied parts of the Swedish policy‐making process – the results implicat...

Under senare år har studenters läraromdömen allt mer hamnat i fokus inom skola såväl som högre utbildning. Parallellt med dessa utvecklingar har olika typer av internettjänster genom vilka studenter kan betygsätta sina lärare dykt upp i flera länder. I Sverige lanserades 2008 tjänsten ”Studenter tycker till” (STT) där studenter kan registrera sig o...

This chapter describes how European civil societies promote integration in the EU by comparing leading practices from various NGOs in Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Italy. The chapter concludes that NGOs are active in areas where governments are weak, or, according to the NGOs, do not meet the expected requirements. All NGOs studied her...

Det här kapitlet presenterar en forskningsbakgrund över hur svensk samhällsvetenskaplig forskning har studerat det svenska organisationslivet från mitten av 1900-talet till idag. Tillbakablicken illustrerar att begreppet civilsamhället kan kasta nytt ljus över relationen mellan det civila och offentliga samhället och problematisera den samverkan so...

This article focuses on the changing level of participation of civil society organisations in the policy process between 1964 and 2009 and its implication for the role civil society organisation in the Swedish welfare state. Drawing on data from the remiss-procedure, one of the most understudied aspects of the Swedish policy making process, the art...