The purpose of this dissertation has been to undertake a broad case study of ESO based on the theories of power, thereby analysing what happens in the political administrative system when an organisation as ESO is established with the somewhat untraditional task to question the programmes, performance, organisation and costs of the public sector.

The following is discussed in this study. Firstly, the tension and interaction between politicians, civil servants and experts in the Administration is analysed, highlighting the problems of classifying an individual as consistently belonging to one of the three categories – individuals to a considerable part alternated between the role of politician and that of civil servant or expert. Nevertheless the study seems to indicate that individuals linked to the Ministry of Finance tended to dominate in the internal deliberations of ESO.

Secondly, the importance of ESO as an instrument in the hands of the Ministry of Finance in the internal power struggle between different segments of the public sector is analysed – showing the problems of being identified as belonging to the Ministry of Finance while officially being at the service of the government as whole.

Thirdly, the ambivalent role of ESO on the external arena is stressed. Although being an administrative agency controlled by the government, its primary functions of delivering critical assessment of on-going public policies made it, in practise, into a useful tool of the political opposition in its criticism of the government.

Another conclusion is that the decision to establish the expert group as well as the one to close it down was politically initiated – on both occasions opposed to by the officials.