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involved partners of the primary school and with the poor economy of the municipal education
system of Århus the challenges that lay ahead where bricks on a long and difficult road.
Beside the financial troubles of maintaining a decent level of educational quality certain
social problems arose during the 1990s which added the already troubled conditions of solving
the challenges further difficulty. One of the hottest issues on the social matters was connected
to the increased number of pupils from fugitive and immigrant families, which demanded extra
professional resources and thereby added further to a general decrease of quality educationally
concerned.
Theoretically this analysis is based on corporatism, which describes how organized groups of
interested parties seek to gain influence on areas of professional and financial matters. On
municipal level the municipal authorities unit them selves in a common union, Kommunernes
Landsforening (KL), and the teachers as professional group unite their professional interests in
a teachers union, Danmarks Lærerforening (DLF), which is devided into many minor
divisions, such as Århus Lærerforening (ÅLF). As a consequence of the decentralization the
local divisions have come to play a more important role representing the teachers on the
municipal level of school politics. The parents of the various school boards also found a
common way of uniting on municipal terms as part of their intensions to gain influence.
In the light of the different sources of this dissertation ranging from literature,
professional papers, minutes and different accounts it has been investigated how the organized
forces try to sway the political and administrative decision making process on educational
politics.
Soon after the statute in 1990 the local government in Århus with Thorkild Simonsen as mayor
the process of decentralization in the school system began. The local authority wanted to
submit the changes to the involved partners before carrying through any change. By the
hearings the local authority tried to legitimate fundamental changes towards the partners of
interest and thereby smoother pass changes through.
The content of the different hearings indicate that the municipal politicians were willing
to integrate the involved parts points of view. Teachers and parents where eager to preserve a
system of central control, which should prevent a greater difference between schools all over
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