Gubben på kullen : Om den smärtsamma skillnaden mellan politiska intentioner och praktiska resultat

Sammanfattning: Many social problems have proved unexpectedly difficult to solve. To analysethe unintended social repercussions of intentional human actions is considered to be the most important task of the social sciences. The ’unintended’ stand inthe way of satisfaction for human needs. The purpose of the thesis is to explain why political intentions are different from practical results. The political science sub-discipline of implementation research can make a contribution inthis aspiration. But there are problems. The top-down approach-researchers (Sabatier et al.) focus on the state, and in this way they tend to leave out extrastate activities (even if they themselves deny it). The bottom-up approachresearchers (Hjern et al.) can accurately map social problem solving, but they can not explain why identified differences exists between functional problem solving institutions and formal institutions (political assemblies). The thesis attempts to increase the capacity of the bottom-up approach to explain results. A framework of analysis is constructed with regard to this aim. It draws on Myrdal (1968) and Popper (1979). The thesis also aims to demonstrate how the framework works in practice. This is accomplished with a case study. It investigates political intentions andpractical results in relation to the heated controversies surrounding the institutionalisation of a National City Park in Stockholm, Sweden. This is the first law-protected national park in the world that is set in the heart of densely populated urban area. The institutionalisation of the park thwarts one leg of ahighway called the Northern Link. This starts a chain of events that stops awhole system of highways supporting the wider Stockholm area. It means thatone of the most expensive infrastructural projects in Swedish history collapses. Instrumental in setting this turn of events in motion is an old man living in ahouse on top of a hill close to the Northern Link. He takes the plans on the Northern Link to court and unexpectedly wins. The court agrees that thehighway intrudes on the park. Hence the name of the thesis – the Man On the Hill (Gubben på kullen).