The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Gothenburg city maintains democracy, more specifically through a citizen perspective of the international work in the European Union. To examine democracy the essay will use Lundquists theory about democracy values and efficiency values, this to discern whether or not there are such values in their document about policy and guidelines for international cooperation in Gothenburg city. The paper will also discuss the results in relation to Dahl’s discussion about democracy vs efficiency. To fulfill the purpose, the paper uses a theory-consuming method. This due to the fact that the method places the case as the main object for the research, and not the theory. Furthermore,

the method does not have the purpose to generalize the results. To be able to ascertain if there is such values in the policy document, the method contains a schedule with democracy values and efficiency values. The intent of the schedule is to find different ”sentences/keywords” in the document that fits under these different values. After the audit of the policy document, and after sorting out the sentences and the keywords under the schedule, the conclusion is that there are democracy and efficiency values in the policy document. Due to the fact that the purpose was not to measure the quantity of these values in the document, you cannot draw a conclusion of how ”many” it contains. Furthermore, the paper comes to the conclusion that there are some differences in the theoretical definition and the policy document. In relation to Dahl’s discussion, the conclusion is that the policy document maintains democracy values, but you cannot assert exactly to what extent.

Keywords: European Union, Gothenburg city, democracy, efficiency.