Vote seeking Politicians and Decision-Making on School Closures in Sweden

Given the importance of protests as a form of political participation today, it is relevant to ask how these actions influence the decision-making process. However, as far as social movement research is concerned, most previous studies have focused on the social movement organizations and the circumstances around them, and have largely ignored their targets and how they function. In this paper, I investigate whether there could be any tactical motives behind the distribution of school closures in Sweden. Closures of welfare institutions often spawn protests from affected clients and these actions are some of the most common forms of political participation in the country. Several hypotheses are formulated out of the assumption that politicians are vote seekers/office seekers and try to decrease what they perceive as possible negative effects of closures. The hypotheses are tested through a large-N study on school closures in Sweden 2002-2010 and interviews with politicians. The focus on blame avoidance further distinguishes this paper from previous studies on the policy outcomes of social movements and it is possible that scholars have underestimated the influence of interest groups as a result.