Agencification and Corporatization in Norway 1947–2011

Abstract

We explore agencification and corporatization in the Norwegian central government. While these types of organizational change have often been linked to the NPM and post-NPM doctrines of recent decades, we will extend our analysis back to the post-World War II period. The empirical data are drawn from the Norwegian State Administration Database. The main focus will be on changes along the vertical dimension, i.e., conversions of ministerial units into state agencies and from state agencies to state-owned companies, or in the other direction. A main question is the organizational dynamics of agencification and corporatization. Why have the structure and organization of government changed, how and to what degree do the pattern of change reflect global trends in NPM and post-NPM reforms, and is the central government subject to the politics of structural choice. Moreover, what is the importance of national administrative doctrines, party constellations in government, and deliberate actions of administrative policy-makers?

Keywords:

• agencification
• corporatization
• administrative reform
• government

Notes

¹See Rolland & Roness (2012)for a more comprehensive discussion of the development of the various sub-categories of civil service organizations (including central agencies) over time.

²See Rolland & Roness (2012)for a more comprehensive discussion on how and to what extent agencification is affected by stages in the development of state agencies (cf. Premfors, 1999; Rose, 1976). This includes a presentation of the prevalence of state agencies in each of the 10 categories at four different points in time (1947, 1971, 1991, 2011), corresponding to the start or end of some of our seven periods.

³See Rolland & Roness (2012)for a more comprehensive discussion on changes along the horizontal dimension through different types of foundings and terminations.

⁴Here, too, see Rolland & Roness (2012)for a more comprehensive discussion on changes along the horizontal dimension through different types of foundings and terminations.