As a reaction to new public management, the agenda is slowly being overtaken by new public governance. Partnerships, co-creation, voluntary work and capacity-building have become popu-lar words, not only in Denmark and in the Danish public sector, but in many western countries.
Co-creation is very much of current interest in the Danish municipalities. This Master´s project is about whether politicians in municipalities in Denmark experience democratic problems about co-creation. The research question of this project is:
To what extent do the municipal politicians experience that co-creation is causing a problem in the modern local democracy?
The project contains a survey in 5 Danish municipalities, where the members of the municipal council have been asked questions about how they experience co-creation according to power, cooperation, information, their own role, if they think co-creation is undermining the local de-mocracy, etc.
The conclusion is that the municipal politicians are not experiencing that co-creation is causing a problem in the local democracy to a very great extent. On the contrary, the politicians are experi-encing that co-creation strengthens the cooperation with the citizens, and that resources are bet-ter used when co-creating. Only a few politicians in the survey are experiencing that co-creation undermines the local democracy. Quite a few of them, though, are experiencing that co-creation has a problematic angle about only the citizens and companies with a lot of resources are partici-pating in co-creation.
The survey shows that the politicians experience that the power balance is changing when co-creating. It is specifically the citizens and the players of the co-creation who are gaining power. The power is being experienced as productive, though.
Openness and transparency are some of the key words in the future management of co-creation. It is important that co-creating with some of the citizens and other non-public players does not become an excuse for not going public and letting the co-creation subjects be challenged by the one’s not being a part of the co-creation process. This is also an important issue for the municipal council. The co-creation subjects should still be a part of a living democracy where political posi-tions and thoughts are expressed.
The role of the municipal politicians in co-creation should be an important subject in the future years. The survey shows signs that the politicians, who do not appreciate co-creation, tend not to run for another period in the municipal council. If this trend develops, it could become a demo-cratic problem.
By far, most of the politicians think that co-creation offers a useful combination of specific and overall subjects. They are experiencing an improvement in cooperating with the citizens as well as with the public administration. It is important for being successful in co-creation and avoiding democratic problems that there is a fine power and cooperation balance between the politicians and the public administration.