Viewing Nordic Public Management.

  • Noralv Veggeland Dept. of Economics and Organization Science, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Lillehammer, Norway
Keywords: Administrative Traditions, Nordic Model, Structural Threats, Subsidiarity.

Abstract

How do Nordic states conduct policies in order to bring people closer to the socio-economic realm, in the sense that they, being social capital, tend to be integrated as active and participatory citizens? How do the interventionist and expensive Nordic welfare states survive in the global age, with demanding and ever changing claims to international competitiveness?

This paper addresses these questions. Social capital and partnership building are introduced as terms and policy concepts in order to find answers in the framework of intended or unintended strategic taming endeavours. As a critical approach claims a contextual conceptualisation, we shall here view different European social models and administrative traditions in relation to comparative basic contexts in order to arrive at analytical answers. Leaning especially on the Anglo-Saxon model, the traditional Scandinavian universal welfare state model of the post-war Keynesian order has gradually been transformed into the contemporary Nordic model (Veggeland 2007). Contextual regulatory innovations and path-dependent processes have generated the survival of universal welfare state arrangements and collective action but with the mixed use of Market-Type Mechanisms (MTM) in the public sector of Anglo-Saxon origin. In summary, this blending of policies has resulted in the advantageous social capital of what is called flexicurity, social security combined with a flexible participatory labour market. We shall discuss both flexicurity policy and participatory subsidiarity defined downwards as contributions to an explanation of why the expensive welfare states of the Nordic type have not only so far been doing well but have also sustained both democratic and output-side legitimacy.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Amin, Ash and Thrift, Nigel (1995a), ‘Globalization, institutional ‘thickness’ and local economy’. Healey, Patsy et. al. (eds.), Managing Cities, Chiester: John Wiley.

Beetham, David, Byrne, Lain, Ngan, Pauline and Weir, Stuart (2002), Democracy under Blair. A Democratic Audit of the United Kingdom, London: Politico’s Publishing.

Black, Julia (2005), ‘’What is regulatory innovation’? Black, Julia, Lodge Martin, Thatcher, Mark (eds.) (2005), Regulatory Innovation. A Comparative Analysis, Cheltenham, UK – Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.

Cassese, Sabino (2003), ‘The Age of Administrative Reform’, in Hayward, Jack and Menon, Anand (eds.) (2003), Governing Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 128-138.

Cini, Michelle (2004), ‘Intergovernmentalism’, Cini, Michelle (ed.) (2004), European Union Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hayward, Jack and Menon, Anand (eds.) (2003), Governing Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Higdem, Ulla (2007), Regional Partnerships and their Constructions and Implementations. A case study of the counties of Oppland, Hedmark, and Østfold’, Dr. scientarium thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Iversen, Torben (2005), Capitalism. Democracy and Welfare, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keating, Michael (1998), The New Regionalism. Territorial Restructuring and Political Change, Cheltenham (UK) and Lyme US: Edward Elgar.

Knill, Christoph (2001), The Europeanization of the National Administrations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kuhnle, Stein (2000), ‘The Scandinavian Welfare State in the 1999s: Challenged but Viable’, Ferrera, Maurizio and Rhodes, Martin (eds), Recasting European Welfare States, London: Frank Cass, pp. 209-228.

March, James and Olsen, Johan P. (1989), Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics, New York: Free Press.

Meyer, J. W. (2000), ‘Globalization: sources and effects on national states an societies’, International Sociology, 15 (2), 233-48.

Moran, M. (2003), The British Regulatory State: High Modernism and Hyper-Innovation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Navarro, Vincent (2002), ‘A critique of social capital’, International Journal of Health Service 2002: 32:424-32.

Navarro, Vincent (2004), ‘Commentary: Is capital the solution or the problem’? International Journal of Epidemiology 2004: 33: 1-3.

Olsen, J. P. (2005): Maybe it is time to rediscover bureaucracy? Working Paper 10. Arena University of Oslo.

Osborne, D. and Gaebler, T. (1993), Reinventing Government, New York: Plume.

Pedersen, T. H. (2008), Fra kommunale forvaltninger til forvaltningsløse kommuner. En translasjonsstudie av reformgrepet utflatning i danske og norske kommuner, PhD-thesis. Tromsø: Tromsø University.

Pierson, Paul (2004), Politics in Time. History, institutions and social analysis, Princeton and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Porter, Michael (2000), Clusters and the new economics of competitions’, Harvard Business Review: Vol 76, 77-90.

Putnam, Robert D. (1993), Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Putnam, Robert D. (ed.) (2002), Democracies in flux: the evolution of social capital, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Røvik, K. A. (2007), Translasjoner og Trender. Ideer som former det 21. århundrets organisasjon (Translations and Trends. Ideas that shape the 21. century), Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Scharpf, Fritz (1999), Governing in Europe. Effective and democratic?, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sørensen, Aa B and S. Spillerman (eds.) (2001), Social theory and social policy: essays in honour of James S. Coleman, London: Praeger.

Szreter, S. and Woolcock, M. (2004), ‘Health by association? Social capital, social theoty and political economy of public health’, International Journal of Epidemiology 2004: 33: DOI: 10, 1093/ije/dyh013.

Taylor-Gooby, Peter (ed.) (2004), New Risks, New Welfare. The Transformation of European Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Timonen, Virpi (2004), ‘New Risks – Are They Still New for the Nordic Welfare States’? Taylor-Gooby, Peter (ed.) (2004), New Risks, New Welfare. The Transformation of European Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 55-83.

Tranøy, Bernt Sofus (2006), Markedets makt over sinnene (The power of the market over the souls) Oslo, Aschehoug.

Veggeland, Noralv (2004), The Competitive Society. How democratic and effective?, Kristiansand: Norwegian Academic Press.

Veggeland, Noralv (2007), Paths of Public Innovation in the Global Age. Lessons from Scandinavia, Cheltenham, UK – Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.

Veggeland, Noralv (2013), Essays on Regulatory Governance, New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Veggeland, Noralv (ed. 2016), The Current Nordic Welfare State Model, New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Warden, F. van (1995), ‘National Regulatory Styles. A Conceptual Scheme and the Institutional Foundations of Styles’, in Unger, B. and Warden, van F. (eds), Convergence or Diversity? Internationalization and Economic Policy Response, Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, US: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 45-97.

Published
2018-04-14
How to Cite
Veggeland, N. (2018). Viewing Nordic Public Management. Journal of Progressive Research in Social Sciences, 7(3), 555-561. Retrieved from http://scitecresearch.com/journals/index.php/jprss/article/view/1488
Section
Articles