A Projectified Public Administration How Projects in Swedish Local Governments Become Instruments for Political and Managerial Concerns

Abstract

Over the last couple of decades an increasing use of temporary organizations hasbeen observed in public administration, a development sometimes referred to asprojectification. This article explores the political-administrative rationality of projectificationby studying the initiation and implementation of a project fundingsystem regarding social investments in a Swedish municipality. In the article it isargued that projectification is driven by the administrative leadership with the aidof devoted civil servants. Projects are also attractive to politicians because of thetemporal, forward-looking character of politics itself, i.e. that the time conceptionof project management and politics is basically similar. The article shows that thecritique against projectification in terms of increasing short-termism is somewhatbeside the point, since politicians and top managers rather seem interested tointroduce more short-termism in public administration. Projectification, however,does not represent a profound organizational change but rather introduces a newmind-set with potential long-term effects.

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