A common understanding prevails that political systems generate legitimacy by both democratic procedures and by performance in service production. With the increase of NPM-models in local services, some scholars argue that performance is becoming a more important source of legitimacy than conventional legitimacy originating from the procedural side of governance. The aim of the paper is to discuss and analyze the importance of, and relation between these sources of legitimacy. The paper examines three hypotheses: 1) the trade-off hypothesis, 2) the synergy hypothesis and 3) the independence hypothesis. Based on citizen surveys in Norway and Sweden, our analysis argues that the dimensions are synergetic.

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Given the increasing emphasis on delivery and output as a source of legitimacy for local government, how do politicians and civil servants perceive conventional, input-based channels for citizens’ influence on government in relationship to performance and output-oriented opportunities to influence public service? This article compares the attitudes of senior local politicians and civil servants in Norwegian and Swedish local authorities on these issues. The analysis draws on a data set collected among political and administrative leaders in Norwegian and Swedish local authorities. We also compare a service sector where public management reform has been extensive (care of the elderly) with a service sector where regulation and law enforcement dominates (planning and construction). The analysis suggests that there is a significant similarity between politicians’ and bureaucrats’ attitudes, although politicians accord greater importance to input-based channels of influence and to throughput than do bureaucrats. Points for practitioners Public management reform provides a new channel for clients to influence public service directly through the providers of those services and not through conventional political channels. This article studies how politicians and public servants in Norwegian and Swedish municipalities evaluate conventional and new channels for clients to influence service delivery. We also compare service sectors where such choice is extensive with areas where choice is much more constrained. Overall, we find that politicians tend to favor conventional political channels for clients’ influence whereas public servants take a more positive view of clients approaching the executive side of the local authority.

Trust is an essential part of a legitimate political system. Based on data collected among Norwegian citizens, this article investigates the effects on trust in local politicians by influence on versus satisfaction with local services. The theoretical base for the article is the two differing theories which argue that citizen either regard themselves as consumers or citizens of (local) government. The article argues that people, when evaluating trust towards local politics, tend to apply customer-oriented factors to a greater extent than citizen-oriented factors. However, we do not find support for a claim that customer- oriented factors have replaced citizen-oriented factors as such. Thus we argue that the two considerations appear to be complimentary rather than mutually exclusive.

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