Informatören och demokratin

ABSTRACT Informatören och demokratin, by Anders Carlsson Media and communication studies, second semester of 2005 The purpose of this essay is to study the ways in which public relations officers in decentralized municipality-councils work with the ideas of deliberative democracy. During the last decades Sweden has seen a decreasing participation in the parliamentary system which has caused the government to emphasize the municipalities’ independence and judicially offer ways to increase the citizens’ possibilities to take part in the process of decision making. Gothenburg’s municipality council is decentralized into 21 districts, which all have public relations officers. I examine their role in the carrying out of deliberative ideas and what conditions, obstructions and possibilities that exist. My method of choice is semi-structured interviews with 7 PR-officers. Results show that the PR-officers see as their main task to produce and distribute neutral information to all citizens, hence enabling participation. The politicians initiate meetings of dialogue and the PR-officers duties range from strictly informative tasks to the planning of the meetings and the discussion of topics. The PR-officers function more as a resource for the municipalities’ production and distribution of information than as a democratic resource for the inhabitants. Keywords: deliberative democracy, municipality, public relations officers, Sweden