Danish Central Government Research Articles

The termination of central government internal auditing and the emergence of the innovation society

AbstractFor over two decades, the literature has characterized contemporary Western societies as audit societies. These societies are characterized by an approach to governance that is shaped by the idea and practice of auditing. This paper shows that with regard to public governance, the audit society has started to give way to a program of government innovation, or what we theorize to be the emergence of a new form of society: the innovation society. The paper builds this theorization on a longitudinal case study of the past 40 years of Danish central government administrative policy developments with a focus on internal auditing. The paper shows that internal auditing has transitioned from being a macro actor of public governance to becoming a micro actor and ultimately terminated. The paper further shows that this dissociation process was instigated not by elected politicians but by highly positioned civil servants who managed to remove what they identified as an obstacle to the stability of the innovation program.

The effect of procurement centralization on government purchasing prices: evidence from a field experiment

A fundamental question in public policy and management research is whether large-centralized or small-decentralized organizations perform best. Perhaps nowhere is this tradeoff more tangible than in the context of government procurement of goods and services, where even small differences in organizational efficiency can lead to significant differences in purchasing prices. In this article, we put the theoretical arguments concerning centralized versus decentralized procurement to a systematic empirical test. We conduct a randomized field experiment of public purchase of air travel in the Danish central government. Our findings suggest that centralized procurement is not associated with lower purchasing prices; if anything, centralized purchasing is slightly more costly than decentralized purchasing of identical products. However, centralized procurement may offer other benefits, such as economies of process, information, and compliance. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of our findings and propose avenues for further research on centralized versus decentralized government purchasing.

Functional Politicisation Among Lower-Ranking Civil Servants: Conflicts and Dilemmas in Danish Central Government


 
 
 The role of the civil servant in modern democracies is increasingly complex due to multi- ple and co-existing forms of democratic governance. Civil servants need to balance be- tween traditional bureaucratic norms ensuring a rule-governed public administration where they represent neutral competencies within the political system, while they at the same time must ensure efficiency in the public sector, interact with various stakeholders and citizens, and ensure the loyal implementation of the will of elected politicians. In the wake of several Danish political scandals involving both ministers and civil servants, the so called Bo Smith Commission was established in order to examine and discuss the current norms and practices of the civil service. In this article we draw on a survey con- ducted by the Bo Smith Commission in 2015 including nearly 4.000 lower-ranking civil servants. Through an in-depth study of the 554 responses in the open category, we uncov- er how functional politicization is manifested in Danish state administration among low- er-ranking civil servants. The study, thus, uncovers in detail the characteristics of func- tional politicization and investigates the coping strategies of lower-ranking civil servants, when the demand for political responsiveness compromises classical norms integrated in the Rechtsstat.
 
 

Budget Reforms in Times of Austerity: A Centralization Cascade in Danish Central Government?

Based on a study of changes of the Danish budget institutions, the paper explores how a centralization cascade may look like, and discusses the consequences thereof. The paper identifies a centralization cascade, as the Ministry of Finance acquires increased power and greater control over the line ministries. Consequently, line ministries enhance their control over their agencies, which is followed by enhanced internal management and control within agencies. The changes imply both functional and dysfunctional consequences as well as the appearance of a range of trade‐offs between the different functions of a budget.

Bureaucratic dilemmas: Civil servants between political responsiveness and normative constraints

The interaction between political executives and civil servants rests on a delicate balance between political responsiveness and the duty of civil servants and ministers to respect legal and other normative constraints on executive authority. In Danish central government, this balance is stressed by norms that define the correct behavior when the civil service provides ministers with political advice and assistance. Organizational factors strongly influence civil servants' behavior when they have to balance responsiveness against constraints on their role as political advisers. Moreover, civil servants working closely with ministers pay more attention to legal constraints than their peers among agency officials and specialists. Agency officials and specialists are much more prone to prioritize professional standards. We argue that this pattern can be generalized West European systems.

A Third Generation of Performance Contracting in Danish Central Government?


 
 
 This paper compares the content of performance contracts in Danish central government over time in order to identify whether – and if so, how – it develops. The analysis is conducted as a two-step, mixed methods study. First, a quantitative study was carried out based on a study of all performance contracts in Danish central government in 2002, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2014. For each year, all performance contracts have been coded according to the number and type of targets included in them. A range of qualitative interviews was then carried out, and Ministry of Finance recommendations were consulted to improve the un- derstanding of the results of the quantitative analysis and development patterns. The paper finds a general decrease in the number of performance targets per contract and a change in the relative share of different types of targets over time. During the period under study, the share of outcomes has increased, activity-oriented targets have decreased, and targets for internal management decreased in the mid-2000s before again increasing more recently. On this basis, performance contracting in Danish central government is argued to have entered a third generation.
 
 

Civil Servant Involvement in the Strategic Communication of Central Government Organizations: Mediatization and Functional Politicization

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the involvement of permanent civil servants in strategic communication in government organizations within the context of mediatized democracies. Based upon an argument that the involvement in strategic communication is to be seen as part and parcel of a functional politicization of the civil service, the article identifies a significant and positive relationship between media awareness and functional politicization across the ministerial hierarchy as well as between media pressure and functional politicization, although moderated by organizational level and position. Based upon these empirical findings, the article demonstrates how strategic communication for pursuing and achieving political ends in central governments involves a permanent civil service aware of and positioned in organizations subject to pressures from the news media. The article discusses how these findings relate to different perspectives on strategic communication in central government organizations and identifies the need for mediatization research to re-emphasize central government organizations as organizations in their own right but just as importantly as an instrument for governments. Furthermore, the article points out the relevance for including non-elected actors into the research on political communication from politicians once elected into offices. The empirical analysis is performed in the context of Danish central government organizations.

Project Management in the Danish Central Government


 
 
 While project management (PM) has become an almost constituting element of modern public organisations, empirical research on PM in the civil service, let alone government offices, has been overlooked. In this article, we will on the basis of public organisation recruitment efforts illustrated through a textual analysis of job adverts for the Danish Civil Service, analyse how the individual roles related to project management in civil service organisation from 1982 until 2011 has emerged in terms of the following dimensions: a) the project managerial role, b) required competences for PM, c) whether the role of PM refer to internal or external projects, d) which stages of the policy cycle which are subject to PM, e) and whether we are talking about permanent project management organisations or just temporary projects. These questions are then applied on a minor empirical textual analysis of job adverts in a Danish professional journal in the period of 1982-2011 with the aim of generating a couple of hypotheses. The results of the study shows that project management has permeated throughout the central service, but also that the pro- ject management has become a term used inequitably for describing all forms of work-life in modern bureaucracies. Also, we identify a number of hypotheses for future works. First, project management in the Danish civil service is not a managerial role. Second, by requesting project management competence, the investigated ministries were looking for certain interpersonal skills, and not transferable PM competences. Finally, being a project manager in the Danish civil service means being ready for internal projects, not to work more cross-sectoral with other actors.
 
 

Agency Performance and Executive Pay in Government: An Empirical Test

Public management reform has drawn inspiration from principal agent theory and private management, and a favored reform strategy has been civil service reform that strongly recommends pay-for-performance. The hypothesis tested in this paper is that the incentive effect will improve public sector management. The basis is the performance management system introduced in Danish central government where access to both performance and pay data provides us with unique behavioral data. The system combines performance contracts with executive contracts for agency heads, who in this way can earn a bonus based on agency performance. We find no support for the hypothesis and discuss the result against principal agent theory, private sector experience, and bureaucratic theory. Reforma en la gerencia pública ha extraído tanto de la Teoría Agente-Principal como de la gerencia privada y una de las estrategias favorecidas ha sido la reforma del servicio civil la cual recomienda fuertemente remuneración según el desempeño. La hipótesis analizada en este artículo es que el efecto del incentivo mejorara la gerencia en el sector público. La base del estudio es el sistema de gerencia de desempeño introducido en el gobierno central Danés el cual nos proporcionó acceso a datos de desempeño y remuneraciones junto con datos únicos de comportamiento. El sistema combina contratos de desempeño con contratos gerenciales de los directores de entidades quienes devengan un bono dependido del desempeño de la entidad. No encontramos respaldo para la hipótesis y discutimos los resultados en contra de la Teoría Agente-Principal, experiencia en el sector privado y la teoría burocrática. Translations by Claudia N. Avellaneda, University of North Carolina Charlotte and Nicolai Petrovsky, University of Kentucky

Introduction of Electronic Registration in Danish Central Government Administration

This paper gives an overview of the administrative history of the introduction of electronic registers in the Danish central administration before the spread of the Internet. Electronic registers have developed in the interplay between new technological capabilities and political and administrative needs, but the changes that have been implemented are primarily the result of new political objectives or requirements. Examples are taken from the Students' Register at the University of Copenhagen, the Central Register for Motor Vehicles, the Danish Civil Registration System (CRS) and the National Patient Register (NPR).

Delegation without Agency Loss? The Use of Performance Contracts in Danish Central Government

Performance contracts entered between ministerial departments and their agencies are used throughout the Danish central government. The article analyzes the use of performance contracting in 2005. The analysis draws on transaction cost theory and actor‐centered institutionalism, stressing the bargaining aspect of hierarchy and the importance of economic and political transaction costs. The analysis shows considerable variation in the content of performance demands. Ministries with different organizational designs use contracts in markedly different ways and agencies with a strong interface to individual citizens and businesses are more likely to meet demands regulating policy delivery and service levels. Further, contracts contain substantive clauses, the terms of which are largely assessable. It also shows that performance contracts only rarely specify demands related to cost efficiency within agencies. Many of these results are statistically significant, even though a general point is the wide variation in the implementation of performance contracts between individual ministries.

Performance Budgeting in Denmark

This article describes the development and current content of the performance management system in the Danish central government. Since the 1980s, innovations have included results-based management, performance contracts, activity-based budgeting, accrual accounting and budgeting, and the use of evaluations and reports.

The politics of accounting technology in Danish central government

The social and political aspects of a governmental computer-based accounting system (SCR) in Denmark will be examined. It is generally accepted that the SCR system has fulfilled a number of useful purposes. However, it has also been subjected to adverse criticism, as extensive, political implications have been detected in its application. In the study I have analysed the application of accounting technology from a political perspective. One of the main findings of this study indicates that the centralized management accounting system has implications for the balance between autonomy and control. It is suggested that centralized accounting technology creates a management view that symbolizes dependency and bureaucracy. If such an understanding of accounting technology is integrated with theories of management control, we may find that the SCR system will have an impact on the evolution of local management control in government agencies.

Interpreting Administrative Change: Bureaucratic Self‐Interest and Institutional Inheritance in Government

Between 1946 and 1995, Danish central government had been subject to numerous reorganization initiatives. Based on the assumption of self‐interest motivated and risk‐averse bureaucrats, these initiatives are analyzed in a long‐term historical perspective. It is argued that civil servants both feel a strong incentive to and have good chances of defending the existing organization. This creates a historical bias in favor of whatever organizations were created in the past. Still, the mutual dependence between political executives and their civil servants opens up for bargaining dynamics allowing for mostly incremental change. While ideology has been unimportant in the development of central government organization, broadly shared ideas about reform may account for some instances of radical reform, consistently opposed by Danish civil servants.

Agencification and De-Agencification in Danish Central Government: Contradictory Developments - Or is There an Underlying Logic?

Agencification and De-Agencification in Danish Central Government: Contradictory Developments - Or is There an Underlying Logic?

Post-1970 "budgetary cooperation" between central and local government in Denmark

As the result of a major local government reform in 1970, most welfare functions in Denmark are dealt with at the local level of government, effectively turning the extensive Danish "welfare state" into "welfare communes" as municipalities are called in the Scandinavian languages. With more than half of the country's total public expenditure being spent by local authorities, regulation of local govenment budgets has become a major concern in the economic policy of the Danish central government. Since the early 1980s the realization of the goal of limited growth in Danish local government spending has been quite successful. One explanation for this comparatively successful regulation of local government spending in Denmark can be foundin the combined effects of two factors: 1) Danish local authorities have the independent right to levy taxes, and 2) the regulation of local budgets is the result of a negotiated agreement between central and local government actors, known in Danish as "budgetary cooperation."

Strong or Weak State? The Case of Danish Agricultural Export Policy, 1849-1906

Recently Amanda R. Tillotson argued in an article in Comparative Politics' that Danish development towards modernization can be explained in terms of a theory focusing on role of the central government as an active participant in process, a participant that sought to advance relatively consistent core goals with constraints imposed by changing structure of municipal institutions and by shifting division of political and economic power among nations.2 I shall argue that, in so far as Denmark's development after 1849 (when it became a constitutional monarchy) is concerned, analysis offered by Tillotson regarding role of Danish central government can be questioned. Instead, Danish development can be understood better as based on a proliferation of associations of different kinds, an explicit renunciation of state intervention in most agricultural affairs, and a negotiated intervention in a few. The central government, therefore, was not a very active participant in this case; consequently, a strict statist distinction between state and society is difficult to maintain. In addition, statist approach may block from researcher's view what was going on in civil society. The discussion below is meant to indicate that distinction between state and society may be right under certain circumstances, but less fertile in others. The problem for researcher, then, is to determine circumstances--in this case for Danish state in second half of nineteenth century. This is where I take issue with analysis offered by Tillotson.