The rise and decline of a visionary policy: Swedish ICT-policy in retrospect

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hall, Patrik^{a; *} | Löfgren, Karl^a

Affiliations: [a] School of Technology and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden. Tel.: +46 40 665 73 15; Fax: +46 40 665 73 00; E-mail: karl.lofgren@ts.mah.se

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author

Abstract: During the 1990s a new policy area – ICT-policy – evolved in Swedish politics. It manifested itself through a number of unprecedented initiatives from the government including a new type of institutional set-up. These initiatives all encompassed an underlying idea of governing the new policy area in a manner different from previous modes of governing which emphasised a parliamentary chain of command. Governing concepts such as "dialogue", "networks" and "visionary hearings" became cornerstones for "leading" Sweden into the new "information society". In this article we have the ambition to analyse how a new phenomenon in politics have been received in an age characterised by deregulation, new paradigms in governance and a welfare state in transition. Based on a comprehensive interview survey and a discourse analysis of official documents we can conclude that the new modes of governance have not been efficient tools to accomplish the high ambitions and objectives of the policy. Rather, the new institutions set up to manage 'the future' have in many cases become 'garbage cans' for issues the traditional "institutions" have not been capable of managing. Moreover, they have in confrontation with old institutions become omitted from actual influence.

DOI: 10.3233/IP-2004-0052

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 9, no. 3-4, pp. 149-165, 2004