The unfolding of agency autonomy over time : The Swedish Social Insurance Agency 2003-2015

The literature on agency autonomy typically assumes that agency autonomy is relatively stable over time and that it unfolds primarily in the relation between agencies and their parent ministries. This chapter challenges these assumptions. It explores how agency autonomy unfolds over time from a system-wide perspective, including the relation between the agency and its parent ministry, the relation between management and employees and the relation between the agency and the citizenry. Data from a qualitative case study of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SIA), covering the 12-yearperiod 2003–2015, is reported. Observations indicate that the agency/ministry relation has changed with each director-general but they also indicate that there is a delicate interaction between the three relations, where they all impact on one another. This suggests that agency autonomy may be best understood as volatile and formed in a complex web of relations