Contemporary democracy suffers from a number of problems of political leadership. Nowadays it is far from clear what it means to be a politician and which demands voters can make of their elected representatives.
This book discusses different ideas about democratic leadership and describes Swedish politicians both as a group and as individuals. Special attention is given to the constitutional bases of the Swedish political system, the Swedish power elite, decision-making processes within policy domains, and the requirements that democracy imposes on individual political leaders.
The book also explains the theoretical framework used for democratic auditing and presents results from a study on citizen tolerance.
Democracy and Leadership is the 1996 report from the SNS Democratic Audit. The Democratic Audit is responsible for auditing the state of Swedish democracy on a yearly basis. This report uses democratic theory as its point of departure and constructs an ideal of democracy based on three cornerstones: popular, constitutional, and effective government.