The Central Government Office (Regeringskansliet) is often described as the key locus of political power in Sweden. Nevertheless, only very modest research efforts have been devoted to this organization. The purpose of this research program - which is multidisciplinary and includes political science, organization theory and history - is to increase our knowledge of the role of the Government Office and to re-think how national governments in general regulate and are regulated. The research program aims at contributing to the ongoing discussion about the transformation "from government to governance" in modern societies.
The research program will highlight three significant processes over the past two decades. First, the program will investigate the causes and consequences of the increased focus on economic factors and the expanded use of ideas about new public management (NPM) that have influenced all state activities. Second, the programme argues that processes of Europeanization and globalization have increased the embeddedness of state organizations in wider networks and rule systems. As a result, states have become rule followers in Europe and in the world at large. Third, decentralization, for example to local governments, has changed the leverage of traditional instruments of government control. Together, these transformations have entailed changes in the balance between responsibility and control in national governance. The central question is: to what extent and by what means are governments able to influence processes for which they are held responsible?