Decentralized Administration in Sweden
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1974.tb00164.x |
| Author | P. MOUNTFIELD,T.H. CAULCOTT |
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
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Mr.C'aukott is now an Under-Secretary
in
the
Department
of
th Environment and
Mr.MountJield is an Assistant Secretary in the Treasury. Both authors were until
recently in the Machinery
of
Government Division
of
the
Civil
Service Departmnt.
There is a prevalent folk-myth among connoisseurs of British administration
that if only we copied the Swedish model, all would be well. It contrasts
the congestion and overload at the top of the super-departments, the
constraints of over-anxious parliamentary control, and the cautious risk-
averten of British bureaucracy, with a bright, cool, new Scandinavian
world. If only we copied the Swedes, say the myth-makers, we should have
small political ministries staffed by clever young men, concentrating on the
real essence
of
policy analysis and informed decision-making, while the
bulk of the day-to-day work of government would be carried on by semi-
autonomous public boards, not unlike the Platonic (or Morrisonian) vision
of the perfect nationalized industry. That the myth survives owes something
to the Fulton report, maybe even
a
little to contributors to these columns.
So
when we went to Sweden in May
1972
for the specific purpose of com-
paring the Swedish experience with the ideas on hiving-off and depart-
mental agencies
as
they have evolved in Britain, we had perhaps something
else at the back of our minds:
we
wanted to explore the realities behind
this myth.
SEPARATION
OF
POWERS
Like most continental countries (but
on
a different pattern from the
Montesquieuan model of the
US
Constitution) there is in Sweden a formal
separation of the powers of the legislature and
of
the executive. This runs
very deep, and explains much of the apparent independence
of
the
agencies. In the
UK
the prerogative powers, for example of the Home
Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, are survivals of the
same idea. But whatever the constitutional position of the executive in
the
UK,
with its use
of
prerogative powers, the political reality is now
that Ministers must answer
to
Parliament. Indeed by far the greater part
of ministerial powers now depend on functions, powers and duties specific-
ally given to Ministers by Acts of Parliament. But whether a Minister
is
4'
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