This implies that managers at the municipal
level could decide on the organisation of the education service and the way
in which resources should be allocated within the organisation. How this was
done differed greatly between municipalities. A basic argument for this decentralization policy was that a new form of resource allocation would mean
that more consideration could be given to local needs and conditions, as well
as closer proximity to the decision-making (Lindensjö & Lundgren, 2006).
The Government Bill Responsibility for the school (Gov. Bill,1990/91:18) specified the division of responsibilities between central and
local government, where the municipalities were given considerable freedom
to design schooling and budgets so that objectives that were established centrally could be achieved.
Helldin (2007a) discusses the possible difficulties of realising a democratic
school through decentralisation reforms, for example, because differ-ent groups in society are involved to different degrees and because there is a
risk for potential conflict between groups as well as a risk that common interests