This paper explores the role of regulatory impact assessment in achieving transparency and policy accountability in rule-making. Based on a few case studies it illustrates the need for institutions to achieve a democratic “regulatory state”. The discussion is based on findings from Sweden which has not, despite being member of the European Union and despite having a highly decentralized government system, implemented requirements on the full use of RIA. Our focus is on environmental and transport policy where EU directives have had an important influence on national law. One particular feature with Swedish policy making in these areas is that it is guided by ambitious management by objective systems that were established soon after Sweden became a member of the EU. The influence for this came from New Public Management and the ambition of the social democratic government in the late 1990’s to move towards a green growth-based welfare state. However, given the organization of the Swedish government system, the actual implementation has been left with national government agencies. This, according to recent research, has resulted in overimplementation, i.e. more ambitious goals than what the EU requires. Examples are the air quality directive, the water framework directive and recent work related to the directive on driving licenses. In the paper it is argued that this can be explained by the lack of control over government agencies, leaving room for (green) inside activists and interest groups to influence policy making. Ongoing changes in the government system to address some of these problems are also described.
