The Municipal Takeover of the School System

In 1991 the Swedish school system was transferred from the State (the national level) to the municipalities. The reform increased the size of the municipal sector by one fifth, making the reform one of the largest in recent history. Despite broad support for the reform in Parliament, the process was very slow and discussions went on for some twenty years before the final decision was made. Traditional economic theories might be less suitable to explain both the slow process and the outcome of the reform. In this paper insights from economic psychology are used as remedy for the lack of explanatory power of traditional economic theories. The paper covers the political process that preceded the reform, an evaluation of the economic consequences of the reform and an attempt to explain some of the particularities of the reform using economic-psychological theories.Case studies - Sweden; Municipalities - Decision Making; Economic Psychology; Schools

The Path Dependent Power of a Single Word: The Swedish Case of Bureaucratic Obstruction in the European Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive’s Implementation

The translation of the word ‘document’ in the 2003/98/EC directive on the re-use of public sector information into Swedish had several alternative words but used the word ‘handling’. The administrative law precedence for the word ‘handling’ has embedded several assumptions of the actual document, and based on a precedence that started in the 1760s the interpretation became path dependent. The Swedish case of how bureaucratic inertia and path dependence can stall the implementation of EU directives is. The Swedish government’s initial stance claimed that public sector information is not within the European Commission’s jurisdiction and driven by the definition of ‘handling’. This posture has been supported and defended by the Swedish bureaucracy, unwilling to share the information with private entities, and seeking to maximize the bureaucratic influence. The Swedish case visualizes the complexity to implement legislation pursuing information dissemination requiring the cooperation of an established path dependent bureaucracy

Institutional Maximization and Path Dependency: The Delay of Implementation of the European Union Public Sector Information Directive in Sweden

The translation of the word ‘document’ in the 2003/98/EC directive on the re-use of public sector information into Swedish had several alternative words but used the word ‘handling’. The administrative law precedence for the word ‘handling’ has embedded several assumptions of the actual document, and based on a precedence that started in the 1760s the interpretation became path dependent. The Swedish case of how bureaucratic inertia and path dependence can stall the implementation of EU directives is. The Swedish government’s initial stance claimed that public sector information is not within the European Commission’s jurisdiction and driven by the definition of ‘handling’. This posture has been supported and defended by the Swedish bureaucracy, unwilling to share the information with private entities, and seeking to maximize the bureaucratic influence. The Swedish case visualizes the complexity to implement legislation pursuing information dissemination requiring the cooperation of an established path dependent bureaucracy