The Growth in Swedish Government

LewRockwell.com reports:

Sweden has enjoyed an impressive growth in the recent decade, at least in the number of government agencies. Each year, another ten public departments are added to the huge family of bureaucracy. In the last years, Sweden has built 31 new agencies to a total cost of 160 billion Swedish kronor.

This increase in bureaucracy is indeed remarkable. Investigations are carried out and for some reason they tend to conclude that the country needs more playgrounds for social engineering. For instance, a government commission last summer concluded that an "independent" agency should be created in order to "analyze, evaluate and contribute to the building up of knowledge around Urban Politics." With concrete suggestions and ideas like this one, new bureaucracies are created, always for the sake of the "general good," of course.

It seems like a public agency in Sweden today can do virtually anything: promoting Social Democratic policies, encouraging different obscure hobbies or "surveillance" of other government agencies. With some creativity and good contacts with the Prime Minister a shrewd bureaucrat can have his own empire to direct. For instance, the cousin of the Prime Minister didn’t have any University degree nor any experience whatsoever, but became the Chief for a new government "Research Agency."

All these ridiculous examples are in some sense entertaining. However, this development is still worrying. Apart from a huge waste of tax money, the rapid growth of the bureaucracy implies that the government becomes increasingly powerful. The politicians can appoint bureaucrats that are good, faithful Social Democrats that will promote further increase of government power.

More government workers mean a greater vested interest in the growth of government.Sweden will find out that not everyone can work for the government because the government doesn't produce tax revenue:it consumes it.So,at least we know there is some limit.