The Fall of the Strong State

Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 47-63, 2006

18 Pages Posted: 22 Jan 2009

See all articles by Johannes Lindvall

Johannes Lindvall

Lund University - Department of Political Science

Bo Rothstein

University of Gothenburg

Date Written: January 16, 2006

Abstract

From the 1930s to the 1980s, Swedish politics was based on the assumption that social change could be accomplished through a specific political and administrative process. National politicians decided the aims of policy, government commissions of inquiry engaged experts who compiled available knowledge, Parliament turned the resulting proposal into law, a civil service agency implemented the policy and local authorities put it into effect. This rationalistic model of social steering can be called 'the strong state'. This article documents the fall of the strong state. It also argues that these changes to the output side of government have troubling implications for the operation of democracy. The reason is that the strong state model provided citizens with a reasonably clear idea of how public policies were - or should be - produced and implemented. As a result of the strong state's decline, the link from elections to policy is partly obscure, partly broken. The question for the future is whether the strong state will be replaced by some new model that provides the necessary focal points for debates on public policy, or whether stable norms will remain absent due to an inherently obscure division of labour within Sweden's policy-making and administrative structures.

Keywords: INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE, MODEL

Suggested Citation

Lindvall, Johannes and Rothstein, Bo, The Fall of the Strong State (January 16, 2006). Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 47-63, 2006, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1328820 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1328820

Johannes Lindvall

Lund University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Box 52
Lund
Sweden

Bo Rothstein (Contact Author)

University of Gothenburg ( email )

Box 711
Gothenburg, SE 40530
Sweden
+46317864599 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.pol.gu.se/Person.asp?PersonId=82

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
492
Abstract Views
2,824
Rank
123,855
PlumX Metrics