After januariavtalet between the Centre party, the Liberals, the green Party and the social democrats, has many concerned that the incoming government should use their position and bury the reform proposals it did not like in the long investigations. According to Svenska Dagbladet, the new agreement explicitly stated that the twenty-eight of the seventy-three proposals will be investigated. These investigations can more be added, because the wide-ranging proposals such as ”comprehensive tax reform” can hardly be implemented without extensive preparation.
As pointed out in the debate, it is not surprising that the proposals in the agreement need to be explored. It is in line with the Swedish policyprocessen. Investigation process allows for the influence of experts and expertise and to lay the groundwork for compromises, necessary in order to get support in parliament. The Swedish policyprocessen usually is considered to be particularly rational in international comparisons.
the Number of explicit suggestions in the agreement is equivalent to nearly 40 per cent of the seventy-three proposals. It shows that the number of investigations in the agreement is not exceptionally large.
It is not possible to know if the government will use the investigations in partitaktiskt purpose. It can happen. After all, it is the government that has the right to design directive, selecting the form of the investigation and the investigator, and determine the time frames and allocating resources.
It is not possible to know if the government will use the investigations in partitaktiskt purpose. It can happen. After all, it is the government that has the right to design directive, selecting the form of the investigation and the investigator, and determine the time frames and allocating resources.
But maybe we worry about the wrong thing. The risk is not that the investigations get too long but for the short time. An investigation shall first obtain a directive, then performed (average length of an investigation is approximately one and a half years) and then remissbehandlas. Then shall the bill be printed, and the Swedish parliament decide.
When four parties are involved in writing a directive, select utredningsform and investigators of issues they do not agree, it may take a while. Probably several months. If we then add to its length we are up already over two years, before the question even remissbehandlats. We should also consider the fact that several of the questions are complex, both in actual and in the political sense, which means that the investigations should have more time than average at their disposal.
With the normal utredningstakt and the subsequent process, it is far from certain that the proposals can be considered before the next elections. If it is not respected, we risk to get sloppy, weakly anchored with the proposals for short remisstider.
the number of parliamentary investigations was in the 1970s, over 70 per cent, but today represents only about 10 per cent. At the same time, the proportion of ensamutredare risen to approximately 75%. In including SNS Demokratirapport 2017, it has been pointed out that this development is unfortunate because it reduces the continuous contact between the government and the opposition parties.
the Government’s incentives to speed up the process, is at the same time, contrary to what is alleged in the debate, quite strong.
If the government chooses ensamutredare it would certainly shorten the investigation but to obstruct the consensus that is necessary to get the proposals through parliament. It would, therefore, run the risk to be counterproductive.
the Government’s incentives to speed up the process, is at the same time, contrary to what is alleged in the debate, quite strong. So long as the opinion looks like now the government needs to keep the Centre party and the Liberals happy. The reason is that the government does not want to rodney king during an arrest should revive the alliance with the Moderates and Christian democrats. The social democrats probably thinks not only of the current parliamentary term, but more long-term. Of partitaktiska reasons to the social democrats, therefore, that a large part of the januariavtalet is completed before 2022, even if they don’t like all of the suggestions.
Political commentators and others should pay attention to whether the sweeping reforms as changes in rental model and labour law have enough good conditions to be investigated and rooted. The parliamentary parties should seek representation when the proposals with far-reaching consequences are being investigated.
