De omutbara? : En studie om korruption i svensk kommunal förvaltning

Sammanfattning: From an international comparative viewpoint, Sweden is generally regarded as a low-corruption country. Nonetheless, instances of corruption in the public sector can be observed, with high profile cases often involving local elected officials or employees within the Swedish municipalities. This paper explores instances of potential corruption cases in the Swedish municipalities with the purpose of mapping in which ways, and partly why, corruption appears in the municipalities. First, a quantitative approach is deployed in order to survey the municipal corruption that has been highlighted by various Swedish media sources over a ten year period. Following this data collection, a qualitative approach is deployed in order to further analyze the generated data, offering an explanation to significant patterns in the generated data. The theoretical framwork for analysis is primarily based on a collective action approach regarding the corruption prevalence in the observed context. The paper finds that a significant share of the observed corruption cases could be traced to public procurement processes where decision-makers within the municipality is at risk of undue influence from potential contractors, although every type of corruption is found in the collected data.