Anne Lise Fimreite

Reorganizing the welfare state administration

Abstract This article addresses the big welfare administration reform in Norway. The reform is a merger of the employment and national insurance administrations, combined with more formal collaboration with the local government social services administration. The reform introduced a mandatory partnership model between central and local government. This model is a hybrid of hierarchy and network. A substantial dilemma in the particular partnership model chosen is how to enhance vertical control at the same time as sustaining the autonomy of local government. The partnership model created to solve this dilemma represents a delicate and ambiguous balance between accountability to the central government and to the local council.

How to Carry Out Joined-Up Government Reforms: Lessons from the 2001–2006 Norwegian Welfare Reform

Abstract The article reports a case study of a recent and major reform in the Norwegian welfare sector, involving the employment service, the national insurance administration, and the social services. The reform involves two common joined-up government reform measures, namely partnerships and mergers. The study examines how instrumental problem solving in the reform process was conditioned by external forces, negotiations, and administrative traditions. The analysis shows a transformative approach, in which the scope for rational problem solving is both constrained and enabled by interests and cultural constraints.

Reform failure: The processes of devolution and centralisation in Norway

Abstract This article addresses the relationship between central and local government in Norway after two decades of devolution reforms. The aim of the reform process was to provide more freedom for local government. However, recent research has revealed that local government is actually less autonomous now than before. We argue that one reason for this is new regulation and control measures initiated by central government. Based on interviews with MPs, cabinet members and high-ranking civil servants, we argue that these regulation and control measures have been introduced and strengthened in order to counteract the effects of devolution reforms.

After Oslo and Utøya: A Shift in the Balance Between Security and Liberty in Norway?

The article addresses the challenges a society faces to when trying to balance security and liberty after a terrorist attack. A main question is to what extent attitudes toward counterterror measures changed in Norway after the massive terror attacks in July 2011. A hypothesis that people will be more in favor of such measures after a terror attack is examined using data from two surveys—one conducted in 2006 and one in August 2011, with additional results from a survey in 2012. The Norwegian response after the 2011 attacks is compared to the response to the same questions in the United States shortly after 11 September 2001. A main finding is that in Norway, in contrast to the United States, levels of support for counterterror measures declined immediately after the attacks. The authors argue that this can be explained partly by the different levels of trust in the two countries, and partly by differences in the political executives framing of the crisis. In 2012, support of counterterror measures in Norway has risen to pre-2011 levels. This is related to the changed discourse after the publication of the report from the 22 July Commission.

Norwegian centre–periphery relations in flux: Abolition or reconstruction of regional governance?

Abstract The periphery has traditionally had a strong position in the Norwegian polity. From the 1990s, the periphery and its institutional underpinnings, especially the county councils, have been put onto the defensive. Why is this happening? And how is the likely pattern of regional governance going to look? Our main argument is that the region-building forces are facing an uphill struggle against a fundamental transformation of the Norwegian periphery and a concomitant change of the Norwegian state into a financial giant. In combination, these two features drive a classic ‘revolution of rising expectations’ that undercuts the position of the county councils and possibly also that of future enlarged regions. An ever more centralised state is not an unlikely course of development for the Norwegian polity. Europeanisation and identity politics may work in favour of a New Regionalism that involves cities as actors in regional governance more than has been the case hitherto.

Crisis Management The Perceptions of Citizens and Civil Servants in Norway

This article describes and explains perceptions of how able government bodies are to prevent and handle crises based on surveys of Norwegian citizens and civil servants. The citizens generally have a rather high level of trust in the government’s ability to handle and prevent crises, and there are no big differences between the general public and the civil servants regarding their perception of crisis management. Trust-related factors are the main explanatory variables among the citizens, whereas the variations in the views of the bureaucrats are related to policy area, perceived coordinative capability, and mutual trust between governmental bodies.

Tensions and cooperation in a multilevel system: Integrating district councils in city government in Bergen

Abstract This article deals with the fact that central–local relations in a multilevel system often seems to create tensions. A district council reform in the city of Bergen, Norway intended to decentralise authority within the political system of the city ended up with a more centralised relationship between central and local levels. With this observation as a point of departure we categorise decentralisation according to the degree of discretion available for the local level concerning a) objectives and b) means to reach the objectives. By combining these dimensions we identify two types of decentralisation; administrative and political. We claim that all central–local relations will exert features of both types. The mere presence of political bodies is therefore not sufficient to characterise a specific relation as politically decentralised. We conclude the article by discussing some conditions for successful multilevel governance. The conditions draw on experiences from the Bergen district reform, but may have relevance in a wider context.