ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses an attempt to introduce three-year budgeting into Swedish government administration. The reform brought about some changes in the government administration, although perhaps not exactly the ones the reformers had intended. The reactions were different in different agencies, according to their institutional identity. Long-term budgeting had long been ‘in the air’ in connection with modernization of government management systems and a three-year budgeting process had been proposed on several other occasions. The aim of three-year budget reform was to introduce in a concrete management process an ‘ideal’ role distribution between the parliament, the government and the state agencies. Three-year budgeting was to be implemented by different state agencies, each one with a different institutional identity and part of a separate political and cultural system. The Customs Agency has traditional legitimacy as a central state agency with a monopoly of activity and high status.
