Den kommunala policyprocessen : strömmar i kollektivtrafiken och politiken

Sammanfattning: The local political level in the society, i.e. municipalities, has been regarded as one of the more important levels where changes towards a more sustainable development must take place. Municipalities are also responsible for the provision of public transportation, which to a large extent is financed with public funds. The reason is that public transportation exhibit features which are consistent with the popular notion of sustainable development as ecological, economical and social sustainability. By using a policy analysis approach, decisions concerning the design of public transportation systems and the organization of the policy area are regarded as policies for public transportations.Processes to establish these policies could be understood by different competing points of view. One conception is that the policy process is rational and could be seen as the search for the best solution for society to a defined problem. Another conception is that the policy process could be characterized as an incremental process, which only leads to minor changes from the previous policy. A third conception is that the policy process is a so-called garbage can, where the result could be sudden, almost unpredictable, changes of policies. In order to conceptualize such processes, especially agenda-setting and decision making a framework called the multiple-streams framework (MS) has been developed. According to this framework the policy process is separated into three streams; problem, policy and politics. When a window of opportunity opens, a policy entrepreneur with appropriate skills, resources and institutional position might couple the streams and thereby enhance the chances for a specific policy change.The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the policy process which aimed to change the public transportation in three municipalities. The purpose is thereby to contribute to the development of the multiple streams framework and to the understanding of the problems related to local policy making regarding public transportation and sustainable development. The empirical analysis has shown that the framework is useful for understanding complex processes, which sometimes are extended over several years. By sorting data in the different streams a better overview over the processes can be attained. Two types of processes have been found in the municipalities. All of them have tried to create more competitive public transportation systems, i.e. bus systems, in order to get more people to choose the bus for their daily travels. Two of the municipalities have also addressed problems concerning their ownership of bus companies.Four of five processes have resulted in a decision for change. The most common window of opportunity was the institutionalized window which opened at elections or the procurement of traffic. An apparent policyentrepreneur has been discovered in one of the processes. A minor policy entrepreneur has been discovered in another one. In the process were no decision for change was taken, no policyentrepreneur were present although a window was open. The framework has more difficulty to contribute to the understanding of processes which could be characterized by consensus building among actors and a homogeneous policy community.