Political leaders and public administrators: Interaction patterns and pictures in Finnish local government decision-making processes
| Author | Minna Joensuu,Vuokko Niiranen |
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076716673898 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Public Policy and Administration
2018, Vol. 33(1) 22–45
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0952076716673898
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Article
Political leaders and
public administrators:
Interaction patterns and
pictures in Finnish local
government decision-
making processes
Minna Joensuu and Vuokko Niiranen
Department of Health and Social Management, University
of Eastern Finland, Finland
Abstract
The rapid change of local government operating environment shapes the interaction
between political leaders and public administrators, who work in the constant riptide of
service responsiveness and economic pressure. We investigate the relationship
between political leaders and public administrators in the local administration of
social and health services. The patterns and pictures are examined empirically, with
data gathered from strategic-level political leaders and public administrators in six
Finnish local government organisations. The analysis applies multivariate methods.
The results suggest that there are different groups among the political leaders. The
differences are not based on political opinions, but rather on the attitudes towards the
decision-making process, also the views on local government decision-making processes
differ between the groups. The rapid contextual change experienced in the public
organisations requires a fast and well-informed response from political leaders and
public administrators; even political differences can be pushed aside in this turbulent
operating environment.
Keywords
Decision-making, interaction, Finnish local government, political leaders, public
administrators
Corresponding author:
Minna Joensuu, Department of Health and Social Management, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio Campus,
P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland.
Email: minna.joensuu@uef.fi
Introduction
The politics-administration dichotomy is one of the cornerstones of modern
Western democracies (Hansen and Ejersbo, 2002). Similarly, the relationship
between political leaders and public administrators interests researchers of both
political science and public administration. Woodrow Wilson (1887) illustrated the
dichotomy already at the end of the 19th-century, and the relationship was devel-
oped into an ideal type model by Max Weber (1922). Max Weber’s classic model of
bureaucracy is a simplified theoretical illustration of the roles of political leaders
and public administrators, in which political leaders represent the people’s opin-
ions, whereas the public administrators administer impartially (Mouritzen and
Svara, 2002). In Western democracies, this ideal type model is an important context
factor in public sector strategic management and decision-making (Ring and Perry,
1985), and the relationship between the actors in the two spheres is highly inter-
esting as the interaction between them continuously shapes the relationship
between the spheres.
Local government and its role, powers, functions and constitutional status in the
European countries have been shaped by the diverse historical, cultural, social and
governmental systems and traditions, the politics-administration dichotomy being
one of the important characteristics. In Finland and other Nordic countries, local
government is responsible for a large share of public services, ranging from social
and health care to education and infrastructure. At the same time, local govern-
ment is one of the most important arenas of participation in democratic life
(Local Government Act 27§ 519/2007). In the middle of the 2010s, Finland is
undergoing a major public sector structural reform, which has to do with the
interaction and operations models in the local government. However, the reform
does not remove the old layers of administration, which persist as ways of acting in
the organisation.
Political participation has become more individualised, ad hoc, issue specific and
less linked to traditional societal cleavages than before (Horvath and Paolini, 2013)
and, at the same time, the demands for direct citizen participation are expressed
more often than before (Dalton, 2008; Sloam, 2013). The ways people participate
and communicate are changing, which exerts pressure on the traditional political
decision-making process based on classic representative democratic theory. These
developments may indicate that the new generation of political leaders and public
administrators has new ways of acting in the local government decision-making
process (Niiranen and Joensuu, 2014).
Local government organisations usually have a long historical background with
institutionalised (Walgenbach and Meyer, 2008: 55–63), fossilised (Guba and
Lincoln, 1994) or slow structures which have developed over a long period
of time. With today’s fast paced environment and global effects, the organisa-
tions have historical layers with extremely different characteristics. These layers
are mirrored in the interaction between political leaders and public administrators,
especially in the decision-making processes (Niiranen and Joensuu, 2014).
Joensuu and Niiranen 23
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