IV. FOUR NORDIC COUNTRIES

them in the Constitution or in another act” (s. 80). In Sweden, the government may, with the authority of the law, adopt statutory instruments in many areas (taxation is excluded). Statutory instruments are submitted to Parliament for examination and approval, should Parliament so decide. The government in turn may delegate the task of adopting regulations to a subsidiary body (Instrument of Government Act, Chapter 8). Unlike Denmark and Norway, the monarch in Sweden is not required to sign government decisions. In Norway, ordinances, which remain in force provisionally, are issued by the King provided they do not conflict with the laws (Constitution, Art. 17). In Denmark, the Constitution states that the King “has supreme authority in all affairs of the Realm, exercised through the Ministers, signs resolutions relating to government, which are valid provided that the signature of the King is accompanied by the signature or signatures of one or more Ministers” (ss. 12, 14). In practice, the King signs government resolutions without raising objections. Although the decree (guidelines) issued by Denmark’s Ministry of Finance are important parts of the legal framework for the budget system, the authority to issue them is not mentioned explicitly in the Constitution.

Finally, three of the four countries’ constitutions explicitly state that the government must have the confidence of Parliament. In Sweden, if Parliament “declares that the Prime Minister or any other minister no longer enjoys the confidence of Parliament, the Speaker shall discharge the minister concerned” [Instrument of Government Act, s. 6(5)]. If the prime minister is discharged, the entire government is discharged. In Norway, parliamentarianism has not been incorporated into the Constitution; however, in practice, the government also must have the confidence of Parliament.

3.4. Ministries and executive agencies

A unique feature in Nordic countries is that ministries are quite small – their role is confined to policy making. In contrast, most executive functions are performed by hundreds of semi-autonomous agencies, established on the constitutional provision that neither a public authority nor the Parliament may determine how an administrative authority shall decide to exercise public authority or apply laws.13 Finland’s Constitution is the only one that specifies in law the principles for the establishment of ministries and the maximum number of ministries, with their internal organisation to be laid down either in a law or in a decree.

Although ministries of finance are not established constitutionally or even by law – in Denmark, Norway and Sweden – they exercise a powerful influence on budget processes in all four countries. In Denmark the ministry’s powers evolve according to the relative strength of the Minister of Finance in Cabinet and the negotiating skills of the permanent secretary (see Jensen, 2003, for details). The Danish Ministry of Finance, uniquely, issues budget

IV. FOUR NORDIC COUNTRIES

guidelines, in co-ordination with the Finance Committee of Parliament. The counterparts of small ministries in Nordic countries are autonomous agencies. In Sweden, autonomous administrative authorities are established in the Constitution.

3.5. Civil service

Civil servants play an important role in preparing and executing the State budgets. The constitutions of Denmark and Sweden require civil service rules to be established by law. Accordingly, civil service laws have been adopted in these two countries. In the other two countries, although it is not a constitutional requirement, civil service laws have also been adopted (World Bank, 2001, Appendix). In recent years, these laws have been changed to allow most civil servants to be recruited on a similar basis to that of the private sector. Legal provisions are often supplemented by rules in collective agreements between employers and the trade unions, where there is a tendency to abandon the former centralised approach for civil service salary agreements. In three of the four countries, the constitution indicates that the executive alone appoints civil servants. In contrast, the Constitution of Finland allows a parliamentary committee to be involved in civil service appointments. In Sweden, the Constitution states that, in making appointments to State administration, attention shall be directed to objective factors such as merit or competence. This contrasts with some non-Nordic countries, where regulations for appointment include factors such as seniority or educational establishment.

3.6. Sub-national governments

All four countries provide substantial budget authority to lower levels of governments, which comprise counties at the first sub-national level and municipalities at the lowest level (except in Sweden, where there is no regional government but rather two kinds of municipalities). Health, education and social assistance are generally decentralised to sub-national levels of government. Although all four countries are unitary – with county governors appointed by central government in three countries14 – they are more decentralised than some federal countries including the United States (see OECD, 2003). To support this high degree of decentralisation, local governments have considerable taxation power, with discretion to set local taxes, except in Norway (Daugaard, 2002, Table 1). Nonetheless, most local government revenue is either from taxes shared with central government or from targeted and untargeted grants provided by the central government (see country notes in OECD, 1997).

The constitutions of Sweden and Finland specify that local governments have their own revenue-raising powers and that “the State may impose