The politics behind aiding administrative reform: Swedish politicians’ views on the technical assistance to CEE countries during their transition process

This paper investigates the motives and reasons behind the assistance programs to CEE countries from the perspective of the Swedish government, which was responsible for this kind of aid. How did Swedish government arrive at decisions regarding the technical assistance to CEE countries and changes therein? This paper is a follow-up on previous research by the authors on the Western assistance to CEE countries during the transition process. The research revealed that such aid was often ineffective and that priorities in and the nature of aid changed irrespective of negative side-effect on ongoing processes. Recipients blamed foreign advisors for giving inadequate advice; the Swedish foreign advisors pointed to the aid organizations, which did not provide adequate boundary conditions; and the latter told us that it was all politics, decided by consecutive ministers in the Swedish government (Sobis & De Vries, 2004, 2005, 2006, De Vries & Sobis, 2006). Therefore, this paper addresses the opinions of the Swedish government. Within the new institutional framework two explaining factors are mentioned: the logic of consequentiality and the logic of appropriateness (March & Olsen, 1989). The first logic assumes that decisions are calculated intentional choices based on personal preferences, in which the estimates of the merits of alternatives and their expected consequences are central. In the second logic, rule bound behavior, in which action is nothing more than the matching of a situation to the demands of a position, dominates. The description of this framework constitutes the first part of the paper. This theoretical part is followed by the presentation of our empirical research. This empirical research is based, firstly, on interviews with the Swedish officials: the Prime Ministers, the representative of Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the representative of Finance Ministry, who were politically active during the years of 1988-1997. Secondly it is based on an analysis of the diaries written by the Swedish officials who were political active during the years 1988-1997, and by some politicians who are still politically active today. Thirdly, it based on an analysis of the Swedish statute-books, government bills, resolutions and reports. The paper concludes that Swedish government’s decisions on aiding CEE-countries show that the logic of appropriateness and the logic of consequentiality are not opposites or two extremes on one continuum. Rather, we conclude that decision making processes are only seemingly based on the logic of appropriateness. When one conducts an in-depth search and distinguishes pretended and actual goals, an underlying logic of consequentiality shows up.