Styrningsuppfattningar, förtroende och hotbilder hos det civila försvarets genomförare

Abstract

Perceptions of Governance, Trust and Threats among Swedish Civil Defence Practitioners

This article studies perceptions of governance, trust and threats among local politicians and local civil servants responsible for Swedish crisis management and civil defence. Local politicians and civil servants have key roles in the ongoing development of Swedish civil defence, as implementation to a large extent builds on the crisis management capacity of the municipalities. The article argues that the practitioners on the local level function in a context characterized by uncertain and ambiguous governance structures and especially local civil servants assume a role akin to that of street-level bureaucrats. Uncertain and ambiguous preconditions increase the importance of trust both between levels and within the same level of governance.

Based on a survey with 209 local politicians and civil servants we study perceptions of governance, trust, and threats. The results confirm perceptions of uncertain and ambiguous governance structures within the planning for and development of civil defence. The respondents ascribe higher responsibility to local, regional and national public actors when planning for civil defence, compared to the responsibility of citizens, the private sector and the EU level. The results also show high variations regarding levels of trust in the civil preparedness of different actors. Still, the experiences from the Covid 19-pandemic have increased the trust in the preparedness of almost all actors. Perceptions of threats relate to concrete threats like disruption in supply of food, electricity and internet. Notably, the highest threat perceptions concern activities aiming to destabilize democracy.