Re-politicisation as post-NPM response? Municipal companies in a Norwegian context

ABSTRACT

This is an exploratory study of re-politicisation of municipal companies in one Norwegian municipality. Unlike re-municipalisation, which seems to imply the reversal of privatisation and out-contracting, and the reinstitution of municipal ownership, the Norwegian case demonstrates a continued adherence to the provision of certain public services through municipal companies. However, our study reveals increasing re-politicisation, especially with respect to board composition. The mechanisms behind this process seem first and foremost to be a post-new public management (NPM) response (re-centring) combined with efforts of rebalancing NPM-inspired solutions without changing them in any fundamental way (learning from experience).

KEYWORDS:

• Agentification
• corporatisation
• re-politicisation
• re-municipalisation
• post-NPM
• municipal companies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In Norway, the term ‘resultatenhet’ is used. Directly translated it means something like ‘performance unit’. It is a NPM-inspired concept for service-providing institutions such as schools, kindergartens, elderly homes, home nursing units etc. In this article, we use the term ‘agency’.

2. Paragraphs refer to the Local Government Act (LGA). According to the Freedom of Information Act, any separate legal entity is regarded as public if the state, county or municipality, directly or indirectly, owns or controls more than 50 per cent of the company (§2).

3. The average size is almost 12,000 inhabitants, and the median is approximately 4660 (2014).

4. More than 40 per cent of Norwegian municipalities (N = 428) have opted for the agency model over a 15-year period. Concurrently, there has been an increase in the number of municipal companies.

5. Household AS and Commercial Waste AS take care of waste collection, and Production AS is responsible for treating the waste collected by these companies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Forskerutdanningsnettverket i Nord-Norge, University of Tromsø, Norway.

Notes on contributors

Turid Moldenæs

Turid Moldenæs is a Professor of Organisational Research and Leadership at UIT – The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Planning and adjunct professor at Nord University, Norway. Her research interests are in narratives and storytelling, organisational and place reputation (branding) for understanding how organisations and places are influenced by, and seek to influence, their environments.

Harald Torsteinsen

Harald Torsteinsen is a Professor of Political Science and Public Management at UIT – The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Planning and adjunct professor at Molde University College, Norway. His research interests lie in the area of local government innovation and reform, use of corporate forms in public service provision and democratic implications.