PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS FOR NEW MINISTERS

Earlier today Condoleezza Rice went through the Congressional hearings. I haven't seen it yet, so I won't comment on her performance, but the system of Parliamentary hearings of ministers is an interesting one that we should consider in Sweden.

As it is today the Prime Minister appoints his ministers and that's that. This means that the ministers are utterly dependent on the PM; not just for their position (which is as it should be) but also in their mandate to take initiatives. It also means that there's a much higher risk of getting fairly incompetent ministers who knows very little about their area of responsibility - something we've experience more than once under Göran Persson's leadership.

A televised Parliamentary hearing of each appointed minister would help a lot. It would give the voters a chance to decide what they think of the ministers (and of the PM's ability to choose the right people); it would also give the opposition a good oppertunity to ask tough questions; it would give the ministers some space to act on their own (if they're approved of by the Parliament. These things would almost certainly raise the competence of the government as a whole, and it would also decentralize the government somewhat. Both good things.

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