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Table 27.4 Having local autonomy: mean 1 Table 27.6 Local priorities vs. national
1995 1999 2001(03) priorities – mean score 1
Poland 0.56 0.56 1991 1995 1999 2001(03)
Russia 0.56 0.58 Poland 0.17 0.11
Sweden 0.65 Russia 0.29 0.32
1 ’Have local antonomy’ = 1, asked about 13 policy areas, Sweden 0.13 0.15
including education, employment, pollution, housing, etc. 1 Answer options: ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’; positive = local.
Note: Not asked in Sweden in 1991.
years of a re-centralization. In Poland local leaders became less, although still relatively
leaders perceived a drop in autonomy, most highly oriented to the local, and the Russian
probably because there was an increase of leaders slightly more focused on the local,
central authority over the provincial level of with no change among the Swedish leaders
government with the appointment of, rather even though Sweden was in the process of
than previous election of ‘governors’. loosening central governmental control
Using a three-point scale, a general ques- throughout this period.
tion was asked about how much influence the Conflict, however measured, is generally
local leaders had in each of 14 policy areas. the most powerful predictor of a number of
Many of the areas were similar to those for differences among localities and countries.
the arenas covered in the question about The general hypothesis was that globaliza-
autonomy – housing, education, taxation. tion and democratization would increase the
Self-perceived influence went up in Poland, a perception of conflicts in localities. The
country in which globalization was accelerat- increase in globalization does indeed appear
ing, surpassing even the levels in Sweden in to lead to higher levels of conflict in these
both years. It remained unchanged in Russia, countries. This is true in both Poland and
at levels exceeding Swedish responses in 1991. Russia, where issues became politicized
A plausible interpretation of these results locally rather than repressed or moved to
was an increase in the politicization of issues regional and national levels of government.
at the local level in both Poland and Russia One likely reason for mentioning conflicts as
and in the knowledge of the local political detrimental to local political decisions is that
leaders in both countries about the direction after an initial period, local political leaders
of local governmental reform toward local learned that it was acceptable to admit that
self-government throughout the European conflict existed. Under communism, con-
Union. flicts had been seen as a pathology of capital-
Localism was one of several multi-item ism, not socialism. In Sweden, the perception
value scales. It is based on four agree-disagree of conflict interfering with getting things
items reflecting local vs. national priorities: done is relatively low and has barely
national goals should not have priority over increased since the 1991 Swedish study.
local ones; local community problems Paralleling an increase in conflict is a drop
should be first; no community can progress in the ‘civic’ and political support groups
without national priorities; locals should not sought out by political leaders. The question
worry about national problems. The Polish was: from what groups ‘do you seek support’

Table 27.5 Influence across policy areas: Table 27.7 Conflicts interfere with public
14 areas action – mean 1
1991 1995 1999 2001(03) 1991 1995 1999 2001(03)
Poland 0.83 0.89 Poland 0.90 1.18
Russia 0.66 0.65 Russia 0.67 1.07
Sweden 0.60 0.73 Sweden 0.40 0.39
1 Scoring of answers: ‘very much’ =2, ‘some’ =1, ‘none’ =0. 1 Scoring of answers: ‘very much’ =2, ‘some’ =1, ‘no’= 0.