When wolves harm private property: Decision making on state compensation

• Published in: Focaal 2013, Vol.2013 (65), p.114-128
• Main Authors: Sjölander-Lindqvist, Annelie, Cinque, Serena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal populations; Animals; Bureaucracy; Compensation; Consequential decision making; Counties; County Administrative Board; Decision Making; Environmental Policy; Experience-informed judgment; Farmers; Farms; Handbooks; Hunting; Inspection; Judgment; Large carnivore attack; Livestock; Organizational research; Policy Implementation; Political Science; Politics; Private property; Property; Public Officials; Rural areas; Social psychology; Society; Sociologi (exklusive socialt arbete, socialpsykologi och socialantropologi); Sociology (excluding Social work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology); Statsvetenskap; Sweden; Wildlife
• ISSN: 0920-1297; 1558-5263; 1558-5263
• DOI: 10.3167/fcl.2013.650110

According to Swedish environmental policy, harm to private property (mainly livestock, farm, and companion animals) caused by attacks from protected large carnivores is compensated by the state. In a case of suspected harm, a formal investigation process to assess the damage and its cause is initiated by the government. Inspections of damage on living private property are carried out by officials authorized by the regional County Administrative Board (CAB). By focusing on judgment in the making of property compensation decisions, this article demonstrates what occurs in frontline policy enactments, when the inspectors (as deliverers of political decisions) collapse organizational requirements and ideas with personal, yet socially and culturally framed commitments. It concludes that organizational decision making is neither fixed nor stable: organizations operate interactively, generating practices that enhance the agency and authority of particular actors in order to facilitate state policy implementation.