Whole-of-Government initiatives in Sweden: The case of clinical medical research

Decades of reforms focused on the deregulation of markets, have lead to disaggregation, competition and weakened political control. Today, the Western world is struggling to develop models to improve coordination: Whole-of-Government (WG) reforms are implemented. These reforms are focused in particular on the wicked issues that tend to appear in the boundaries between public and private, between policy areas and between politico-administrative levels. We know little on how these initiatives are organized or how they compare. This paper suggests a framework to understand different types of WG models, adopting a governance perspective. It builds on the case of clinical medical research in Sweden. This area serves as an outstanding example of a complex multi-level network environment, including stakeholders such as ministries, universities, regional councils, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry. Based on document studies from this area, the paper outlines a framework with four WG models: Contract, oversight agency, central agency and shared local units. The framework can be used to organize future research in this area