Den kommunala arkivfunktionen. En studie i demokrati

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to study and analyze from an archivists point of view how the function of the municipal archives relates to the aspects of the professional position and, work situation and education of those who work in archives, and to the laws and regulations. Our discussion is framed by the notions of democracy and transparency and their significance for archival practices in a municipality. The analysis based on two models of democracy; participatory democracy and deliberativ democracy along with transparency. The background of our study is the low key position of the archive function in the Swedish municipals and the lack of studies in this area. The work at Swedish municipal archives is premised in particular by the national equivalent to Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and the Archive Act. The Swedish equivalent to FOI, the principle of public access to official records (Swe. offentlighetsprincipen), is based on a general right of access to public documents. The Archival Act describes and regulates archival practices. According to the act, the municipal archives are expected to be subject to a regular supervision. This supervision ensures that rules and regulations are followed, and at the same time ensures a high level of political efficiency. The most essential part of this process is to assess that the political decisions are put into effect. These laws and means of control are the foundation of the municipal archival function. They function as the basis for the design of the survey questionnaire used in the present study to gather empirical data from all Swedish. The results show that the Swedish municipal archival function looks very different in different municipals depending on if they employ an archivist or not. Our study shows that the supervision tend not to function without an archivist. The results also show that municipals with a larger population (and more resources) are better fitted to run a well functioning archive. Our survey based study indicated that to fulfill the laws and regulations that governs the archive function and consequently to guarantee public access to a well functioning municipal archive it is recommend for the municipals to employ an archivist. The level of supervision and resources decides whether the municipal archives function as a democratic resource or not.