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Completed project

Growth, integration and coordination in executive government

Project period November 2016–July 2019
Project employer The Research Council of Norway
Project nr. 10160
Project leader Rune Karlsen

Illustration: Colourbox.com.

Project Description

In the last decades, there has been a steep increase in the size of Norwegian ministries’ political staff and communication units. This project will study effects of these changes on horizontal and vertical coordination in the Norwegian government.

The project is a collaboration between a research group covering three academic institutions (ISF, UiO, HiOA) and the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi).

The project is partly comparative through studies on Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Main Project Goal

The project will consider concrete proposals to improve the coordination capability of the Norwegian government using three groups of measures: procedural changes; structural changes and formalization of informal norms and rules.

Research Questions

The project will address three main research questions:

  • How is the vertical and horizontal coordination in the government apparatus influenced by the increase in the size of the political staff and communication units?

  • Has the increase in the size of the political staff/leadership led to a stronger integration between politics and the civil service?

  • How does the increase in the size of the political leadership and the communication departments influence the relationship between the government and Parliament?

Further information: 

 

Participants

ParticipantDegree PhoneE-mail
Rune Karlsen Research Professor (20% position) PhD rune.karlsen@samfunnsforskning.no
Kristoffer Kolltveit (Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus)
Jostein Askim (Universitetet i Oslo)

Publications

  • Kolltveit, Kristoffer; Karlsen, Rune & Askim, Jostein (2023). Survey research and the scholarship on ministerial advisers. In Shaw, Richard (Eds.), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 110–122.
  • Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Shaw, Richard (2022). In the Beginning: The Story of a Concept, Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective: Governing in Complex Times. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Askim, Jostein (2022). The Norwegian Core Executive: Baronial Courts and Inner Circles? Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective: Governing in Complex Times. Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-94503-9_11.
  • Kolltveit, Kristoffer & Shaw, Richard (2022). Continuity and Change: Explaining Developments and Looking to the Future, Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective: Governing in Complex Times. Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-94503-9_12.
  • Figenschou, Tine Ustad; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2022). Between spin doctor and information provider: Conceptualizing communication professionals in government ministries. Public Administration. doi: 10.1111/padm.12869. Full text in Research Archive
  • Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2021). Communication Advisers in Public Bureaucracies: Inhabitants of the Zone between Politics and Administration. In Pinheiro, Romulo & Trondal, Jarle (Ed.), Organizing and Governing Governmental Institutions. Fagbokforlaget.
  • Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2021). Departementspolitikere i et politiseringsperspektiv: En studie av statssekretærer og politiske rådgivere i regjeringene Bondevik 2, Stoltenberg 2 og Solberg. Norsk Statsvitenskapelig Tidsskrift. 37(4), p. 191–209. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-2936-2021-04-03. Full text in Research Archive
  • Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2021). Populists in Government: Normal or Exceptional? Government and Opposition. 1(21). doi: 10.1017/gov.2021.30.
  • Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2020). Public office as a stepping stone? Investigating the careers of ministerial advisors. Political Studies Review. p. 1–19. doi: 10.1177/1478929920906991. Full text in Research Archive
  • Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2018). The spy who loved me? Cross-partisans in the core executive. Public Administration. 96(2), p. 243–258. doi: 10.1111/padm.12392. Full text in Research Archive
  • Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2017). Political appointees in executive government: Exploring and explaining roles using a large-N survey in Norway. Public Administration. 95(2), p. 342–358. doi: 10.1111/padm.12272. Full text in Research Archive
  • Askim, Jostein; Karlsen, Rune & Kolltveit, Kristoffer (2014). Statssekretærer i norsk politikk: De oversette maktutøverne. Norsk Statsvitenskapelig Tidsskrift. 30(4), p. 233–255.

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Tags: Elections and Democracy
Published Oct. 28, 2016 1:47 PM - Last modified Feb. 27, 2024 12:42 PM