Unpacking Nordic Administrative Reforms: Agile and Adaptive Governments

ABSTRACT

This article examines current reform experiences in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, focusing on the assumed Nordic administrative model. The research questions is: How do Nordic public sector executives perceive reform processes, trends, contents and management instruments? To answer these questions we apply a theory of gradual institutional change. The database is a survey of top civil servants in ministries and central agencies in 19 European countries conducted in 2012–2015 within the COCOPS project funded by the EC 7^th Framework Program. We show that the Nordic countries are pragmatic and motivated reformers. There is a high level of reform activity and public involvement. The reforms aim to improve services more than cut costs. The Nordic model emerges as one that is agile and adaptive. New reform elements have been incorporated into the existing welfare state model, which accounts for differences between the five countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Administrative reform
• Nordic countries
• management reforms
• agile reforms
• adaptive governments

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The survey was conducted within a research project funded by the EU 7th Framework Programme: ”Coordination of Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future” (COCOPS). For more information about the project, the COCOPS survey and links to publications see http://www.cocops.eu.

2. The other countries were Austria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and the UK. There were 335 respondents form Norway, 523 from Sweden, 703 from Finland, 200 from Iceland and 147 from Denmark.

3. The response rate was 28% in Norway, 40% in Sweden, 40% in Finland, 51% in Iceland and 19% in Denmark. The particularly low response rate for Denmark means that the results for Denmark might not be representative.

Additional information

Funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. 266887 (Project COCOPS), Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities.