QoG Code: agency_instruction
Lists the document that formally authorizes an agency's operations. In the Swedish case, agencies can be authorized either by law or executive order (see section 2.2.7), with a given authorization formally referred to as an agency instruction (myndighetsinstruktion). Catalogue-wise, the instructions are denoted by (year:number) and published by the government in the Swedish Code of Statutes (Svensk författningssamling). Content-wise, they typically focus on an agency's overarching rights and responsibilities, but rarely contain any specific policy orders.
footnote{For example, consider the instruction for the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (SFS2013:176). The instruction contains eleven paragraphs. $1
S$ states that the agency is responsible for supervising the provision of health and social care, processing public complaints against providers and their employees, and issuing permits in its policy domain. $2
S$ states that The purpose of the supervision is to assure that the public receives health and social care that is safe, of good quality, and compliant with the law. $3
S$ and $3a
S$ states that the agency must deliver an annual report to the government and produce statistics of relevance for its mission. $4
S$ states that the agency must collaborate with other agencies operating in its policy domain. $5
S$ states that the agency is led by an agency head. $6
S$ states that the agency has an advisory council. $7
S$ states that the agency head is a Director-General. $8
S$ states that the agency has a disciplinary board (personalansvarsnämnd). $9
S$ and $10
S$ references two laws concerning internal auditing and employee rights that the agency must apply. $11
S$ states that the agency is allowed to offer certain goods and services in exchange for a fee. In practice, however, an agency will of course also be subject to a variety of additional laws and ordinances not covered by this dataset (e.g. the Administrative Procedures Act, the Instrument of Government, and the various appropriation directives).} Note that, while the dataset includes all organizations authorized by an instruction during the observed period, it also excludes any organization not authorized by an instruction during the observed period.
footnote{Further note that, since we only count an organization as an agency if it is authorized by an agency instruction, we automatically exclude many ad hoc delegations from the dataset. For example, in response to new political developments, the government can sometimes send out written departemental orders demanding the enactment of a new advisory council or commission of inquiry, but without any real expectations of permanence. Such delegations can sometimes also have their own budget lines and carry their own political appointees. However, they are only rarely authorized through unique agency instructions---which in the Swedish context would bestow them with a certain level of legal autonomy from the government thanks to higher-order constitutional rules. Instead, they are typically authorized through less formalized ordinances that never enter the Code of Statutes. And as long as they are excluded from the Code of Statutes, they will also be excluded from this dataset (for reference, the Swedish Agency for Public Management, which is the government's central agency for evaluating state-funded activities, also only counts an organization as an agency if the organization is authorized by an instruction).}
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