”Ju mer man vet desto mer kan man bestämma” : En undersökning av behov, sökning och användning av information vid beslutsfattande i kommunala nämnder.

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this master thesis is to examine some information aspects of decision-making in Swedish municipal committees. Which are the information needs and how do they emerge? How is the needed information sought and received and which are the sources? How do the members of the committees use information when making decisions? To answer these questions qualitative interviews were conducted with four politicians (two chairpersons representing the political majority and two vice-chairpersons representing the opposition) and three officials in a municipality with a population of about 50 000. The politicians were interviewed in capacity of decision-makers, whereas the officials from the local administration are of interest through their decision-supportive role, which includes providing of reports and other information. The examination indicates that even if the conditions to some extent differ between the committees, the administration is highly influential: Notions and proposals about action may come from inhabitants, organizations, politicians etc., but are handled by the administration, which often is the problem formulating actor, through which the informational needs nearly always are canalized. Even though politicians and officials in some extent turn to the same information sources (e.g. local inhabitants or Government offices) the politicians’ information seeking outside the administration is marginal. The primary part of the seeking and receiving of information is managed by the working committees, where officials explain essential parts of a case (the case is treated in a written report) and motivate their standpoints. When using this and other information in decision-making there is often a strong ambition of consensus between the majority and the opposition; an interesting result considering the different political affiliations among the decision-makers.