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What affects political representatives' attitudes toward citizen protests? We test the impact of political representatives' left‐right ideology, parliamentary position, and earlier experience of citizen protests. Using data from a pioneering survey covering all local political representatives in Sweden (n = 9,101, response rate 70%), we examine attitudes toward controversial noninstitutionalized forms of citizen protests. The results show that representatives to the right show considerably lower protest acceptance than those to the left. Representatives in office show significantly lower levels of acceptance than those of the opposition. Finally, the results show that representatives with more protest experience show higher protest acceptance.

The issue of whether political interests are gendered, and if so, how, has been a recurrent theme in research. While there have been several attempts recently to address gendered political interests theoretically, the central concept of feminism has not been explored in any depth in this context. This article uses unique data pertaining to self-identification as a "feminist" MP, and explores how it relates to gender, party and certain policy issues previously connected to women in Sweden and Denmark. The two neighboring countries both have a high representation of women, but while the Swedish government called itself "feminist," this was unthinkable in the Danish case. Our main finding is that in both countries male feminist MPs deviate from their female counterparts by not supporting "acting for women" which indicates a separate and gendered understanding of what being a male feminist implies. However, no strong association addressing intrinsic feminist male concerns such as parental leave, was found. Another possibility could be that male feminists refrain from taking agency from females, which the "acting for" option could imply. We conclude that the concept of "acting for women" needs to be abducted from its central stance in feminism as a category of representation to mirror the multifaceted contemporary landscape.

Recent years have proven formative for the Swedish administration as the disciplinary commission and committee on the Constitution consider proposals whose adaption will have a far-reaching impact on the nation's social organization. As the constitutional changes can impact significantly on government at the local level, research focusing on questions of local government structure is urgently needed. A major strength of local government is political leadership, which is the key to bridging the gap between democracy and management research. The authors note that the influence of political leaders at the local level is often greater than that of their counterparts in the national government. The direction of future constitutional change will determine the extent to which local government and its leaders can preserve their strengths. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to contribute to the literature on how involuntary backsourcing in public organizations is performed in practice and how it affects the relationship between principal and agent. The study focuses on two questions: (1) Which stages characterize the process when public contracts are involuntary terminated? (2) How does involuntary backsourcing affect the relationship between principal and agent during the transfer period? The study's case concerns public backsourcing in Sweden, in particular, how a metropolitan municipality manages involuntary backsourcing. This study provides in‐depth insights into backsourcing and its practice, as well as the degree to which the conflict dimension between the parties is affected. The study shows—paradoxically—that the relationship between principal and agent during the transition phase is characterized by dependence, mutual exchange of information, collaboration, and less conflict. The study contributes to developing the theory of backsourcing, particularly the behavior that is played out between principal and agent in the transition stage. The findings identify the need for public organizations which make outsourcing decisions to have contingency plans for bringing operations back in‐house.