Science and government in Sweden: Impressions from an OECD conference

Abstract

The acceleration of the incorporation of science into government is intimately associated with the transition in the status of science from being an instrument of policy (for example in defence or agriculture or public health) to being an object of policy in its own right as a major social institution. Of course, science as an instrument of policy continues in its old form too as in transport, housing or education; indeed the newer development arises because of the success of science as an instrument of policy and the recognition of governments that they cannot just go on drawing on a science which is created without its aid and support. But science as an object of policy is new and its organisation tentative and uncertain. Sweden has, this year, joined the group of countries with a central organisation for science policy. The United States formed a Science Advisory Committee in the late 1950s under the chairmanship of a Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. The United Kingdom established an Advisory Council on Scientific Policy in 1947 and appointed its first Minister for Science in 1959 assisted by a Member of the House of Commons with the office of Parliamentary Secretary for Science. In France the government created an Inter-Ministerial Committee and also a Consultative Committee for Science and Technology in 1958. The former committee is presided over on behalf of the Prime Minister, by the Deputy Minister for Science Affairs. Now Sweden has created a Science Advisory Council; its chairman is the Prime Minister and it includes five Cabinet ministers as well as scientists, social scientists and industrialists. This new departure in Swedish science was the focus of discussion at an OECD meeting in June 1 and offered an opportunity for reflection on the contemporary relation between science and government in the advanced industrial countries.