Government In Norway Research Articles

Local Government and Governance in Norway: Stretched Accountability in Network Politics

This article is concerned with the democratic quality of network governance in a local context; in particular, the interplay between traditional local government and the emerging network structures. What forms of interplay can be observed between traditional local government and emerging network structures? Of particular interest in this respect is the role of local councillors. As elected representatives, councillors embody the special commitment of authorities towards the public. However, involvement in networks implies a danger of capture, and if network decisions are not open to public scrutiny, democratic control is difficult to achieve even if local councillors are represented. This article therefore discusses networks and accountability: In what ways and to what degree are networks held accountable? Empirically, it explores three local policy networks, all involving the city of Kristiansand. One group of networks – neighbourhood networks – is internally initiated and maintained by the municipality of Kristiansand. Another network is an intermunicipal collaboration involving Kristiansand and five surrounding municipalities. The third network is an example of a public-private partnership that includes the municipality of Kristiansand, as well as several other actors. The case studies show that the actual presence of local government representatives in networks is not enough to ensure accountability. Lines of popular accountability are stretched, either because the networks are deemed irrelevant by the city councillors, or because networks develop decision-making styles that shield them from external political control, or because local councillors deliberately deprive themselves of influence over important policy fields.

Income distribution and tax structure: Empirical test of the Meltzer–Richard hypothesis

The Meltzer–Richard hypothesis that more unequal income distribution will create a majority for more redistribution has generated much research, but little empirical support. The empirical literature has concentrated on cross-country studies and the size of the public sector, and the results broadly do not indicate more redistribution with more inequality. This analysis suggests that the hypothesis should be investigated in a more homogenous setting with comparable institutions and with an explicit decision about redistribution (here tax structure). New data on poll tax and property tax in decentralized government in Norway are exploited. We show how the multi-dimensional decision can be analyzed as majority rule assuming intermediate preferences. In the econometric analysis, instruments are used to account for endogeneity of income level and income distribution. The estimated model supports the understanding that more unequal income distribution implies a shift in the tax burden from poll tax to property taxes and thereby gives more redistribution.

Recordkeeping in Local Government in Norway 1950–2000

Recordkeeping in Local Government in Norway 1950–2000

Linking Coalitions to Policy Output: The Case of Local Government in Norway

The main emphasis in coalition studies has so far been on national coalitions—with the local level being rather overlooked—and in most studies estimating the impact of local politics researchers have used various indicators of the electoral strength of parties as their main political variable. In this analysis we investigate the genuine composition of coalitions in each and every municipality in Norway, describing which parties serve as the majority base for the mayor and the deputy mayor. This approach gives us the opportunity to investigate both the impact of the genuine political office holders, as well as the structural properties of coalitions, on policy output. Using a decomposition of school expenditure suggested by Falch and Ratts0, we are able to ask in what ways money is spent inside the sector, in addition to how much money is spent. The empirical results show that coalitions can be linked to policy output; the preferred spending objects vary both according to the parties forming the coalition and the structural composition of the coalition.

The Ownership Structure Of Norwegian Firms: Characteristics Of An Outlier

This paper rst describes the institutional framework for corporate governance in Norway, concluding that its civil law tradition of Roman origin provides a relatively high protection of shareholder rights. Using a data set which is exceptionally rich and accurate by international standards, we next quantify a wide range of ownership structure characteristics for all

Income Distribution and Tax Structure: Microeconomic Test Of The Meltzer-Richard Hypothesis

The tax structure is important for the income distribution and therefore a key playground for redistributive politics. The standard theory assumes that more unequal income distribution will create a majority for more redistribution (Meltzer and Richard). This study investigates the empirical validity of this relationship in a microeconomic study of the tax structure in decentralized government in Norway. The choice of revenue instruments studied involves user charges and property taxes oriented towards housing. While user charges act as head taxes, property taxes have distributive consequences. The approach is in the tradition of majority rule, and we show how the local government decisions regarding tax structure and spending level can be understood as one-dimensional. This motivates the empirical analysis where the actual income distribution is measured by the ratio of median to mean income. The estimated model confirms that more equal income distribution implies a shift in the tax burden from property taxes to user charges.

Consultations and Consensus: Implementing the Israeli-Palestinian People-to-People Programme for Development

Lena C. Endresen and Signe Gilen illustrate how in the Interim Agreement of 1995, Israel and the PLO agreed to cooperate on a people-to-people programme in accordance with concepts developed together with Norway. The Israeli-Palestinian People-to-People Programme, facilitated by the government of Norway and the Norwegian non-governmental Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, has operated since. The programme challenges contemporary peace-building theories as it represents a blurring of the borders between the realms of state and civil society, and between peace-making and peace-building. This article describes how Fafo, operator of the People-to-People Secretariat, has designed a programme structure that seeks to ensure consultation and consensus at all programme decision levels.

Political Control of Administrative Spending: The Case of Local Governments in Norway

Excessive administrative spending in local governments has been a concern in the public debate in Norway. Administration takes resources away from welfare services such as primary education and care for the elderly. Since administrative spending varies considerably between local governments, a study of the political and economic factors involved is warranted. The central hypothesis is that the administrators will have more power relative to the politicians when political control is divided between parties. Estimation of a demand model of administration added political structure shows strong empirical correlations between types of coalition governments and socialist controlled governments and the level of administrative spending. Divided political control strengthens the hands of the agenda setting bureaucrats.

Assessment by peer-review panels and by practical users of applied research on issues of Local Governments in Norway

A Danish evaluation of a large Norwegian research scheme (KS Research) funded by the National Association of Local Governments in Norway is described and evaluation methods and findings are discussed. The conclusion is that KS Research could have acquired more research of good quality for its money. The dissemination of research information and the initiatives of KS Research in the field of research policy have to some extent been successful. A sample of the report from projects funded by KS Research has been assessed differently by peers (researchers) and practitioners (being senior administrators and politicians in municipalities and counties). The comparison showed that the peer-review panels evaluated the reports lower on both novelty and relevance than the practitioners did. However, the rank order of the two assessments was positively correlated, but only if opposite cases were excluded. The difference seemed to be due to the ascription of different assessments to the same criteria as well as using different criteria of quality of research. The findings from the research evaluation are put into the perspective of international research on use of research and of quality of research.

Project planning with people's participation

In 1979, the Government of Norway pledged financial support to launch an Integrated Rural Development Programme in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, which aimed to increase income, employment and production as well as improvement of social conditions and living standards of the people in the area, with special emphasis on the poorest groups. The process involved data collection, establishment of target groups, definition of the problem, project identification, project formulation and project implementation. Staff attempted to involve local people in all these stages. The projects fell into three categories: community social development; individual social development; and income/employment generation. Local-level participation helped the project staff to identify the problems and real needs of the people and to formulate appropriate projects. This helped certain socially deprived groups to highlight their needs. Social development projects benefited the people most. But they did not contribute directly to alleviating poverty through income-generation, because such work was done with voluntary labour. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI. This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis.

Local Government Allocation of Labour and the Grant System: An Applied Model Analysis of Local Government Behaviour in Norway

The behaviour of local governments in Norway is investigated in a model of allocation of labour between local services. The model allows for an analysis of the substitution effects in the allocation of local government resources. The results indicate how costs, taxes, grants, and socioeconomic factors influence local governments. The effects of the grant system are emphasized, and it is concluded that selective grants act as general income. As a result, the recent reform in Norway which consolidated the special purpose grants must be expected to have a small effect on allocation of resources.

Organized Grour>Government Relations in Norway: On the Structured Selection of Participants, Problems, Solutions, and Choice Opportunities *

This article reviews the nature of direct interest organizational participation in government in Norway. Organizational involvement, while high, varies markedly across different kinds of associations and issues. Activities are concentrated in the two organizational forms of the committee and remiss systems. The analysis of the linkage patterns with the ministries suggests that corporatism is a somewhat inadequate concept for describing the Norwegian system in general.

The NORSAR Array and Preliminary Results of Data Analysis

Summary A large aperture seismic array, NORSAR, has been constructed in Norway. The project, which started in the summer of 1967, is a joint undertaking by the governments of Norway and the United States of America. NORSAR consists of 22 subarrays, each equipped with one three-component long-period and six short-period instruments. The array diameter is around 110 km, while that of a subarray is approximately 8 km. In the data centre, which is located just outside Oslo, are installed 2 IBM 360/40 computers with peripheral equipment, a special-purpose computer, and an experimental operations console. Routine tasks performed at the data centre comprise array monitoring and calibration, data acquisition, on-line event detection and off-line event analysis. In this paper we give a technical description of NORSAR, emphasizing the software aspects of the array operation, and present some analysis results of P waves recorded at NORSAR. For example, we have found that signal power and spectral characteristics vary across the array and seem to reflect local differences in the geological structures at the subarray sites. The recorded signals are found to be broadband and to contain significant energy at higher frequencies. Observed signal coherencies vary considerably across the array and are usually independent of station separation. Within the subarrays signal coherence is high and the waveforms exhibit little scattering.

Four Elections of 1995

The four elections analysed in this article all took place in the autumn of 1965. In formal terms, there is an important distinction between the election of legislatures (or at most of parliamentary governments) in Norway, Turkey and West Germany and that of a President in France; in terms of results, between the replacement of the Labour government in Norway by a four-party coalition and of the four party coalition government in Turkey by the Justice Party and the confirmation in office of the CDU-FDP coalition and of General de Gaulle.

Scientific Research in the Arctic: Norway

Norway has a special situation among the nations that are carrying out scientific research in the Arctic, since nearly half of the mainland is located north of the Arctic circle. Thanks to the warming effects of ocean currents, however, Norway is not an arctic country in the climatic sense of the word. Her fjords and harbours are open all year around even in the northernmost part of the mainland. The extreme northern location has given Norwegians great economic and scientific interests in the Arctic. The maximum zone of the auroral belt runs across northern Norway, thus making it possible to carry out polar geophysical research from stations on the mainland. This may be one of the reasons why Norway's scientific activity in the arctic area north of the mainland has included relatively little activity in cosmic physics and related sciences. Norway's first national effort in the exploration of the arctic seas took place in Viking times (A.D. 800-1000) when Iceland was settled, and Greenland and the American mainland (Vinland) were discovered. In the east, the arctic coast of Russia to the White Sea (Bjarmeland) was explored. The first reports of the Svalbard (Spitsbergen) island date from this period, when it was considered to be a part of Greenland. Interest in the Arctic by the Norwegians was renewed in the early part of the nineteenth century, when Norwegian seal- and walrus-hunting vessels explored the arctic seas from Greenland to Novaya Zemlya, discovering, for example, Franz Josef Land. At the same time, Norwegian trappers began exploiting the Svalbard area. In the summer seasons 1876-78 the government of Norway sent an oceanographic and biologic expedition to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitsbergen. At the end of the century, Fridtjof Nansen accomplishing the first crossing of the inland ice of Greenland and by drifting with the specially constructed ship Fram across the polar basin (1893-96), opened a new and great era of Norwegian contribution to the knowledge of the Arctic. ...

In re Government of Norway and Government of the United States of America.

Jurisdiction — Territorial — Expropriation of alien property — Requisition of shipbuilding contracts and materials in time of war — Compensation for — Effect of waiver of claim by companies affected — Failure to resort to local remedies — Adjudication of responsibility under municipal law and by punicipal court — Effect of international agreement — The law of the United States of America.State responsibility — For wrongs unconnected with contractual obligations — Acts of State organs — Local remedies — Failure to exhaust — Claim to compensation by alien for work in connection with construction of ships — The law of the United States of America.State responsibility — Damages — Measure of — Damages for loss of profits — Requisition of shipbuilding contracts and materials in time of war — Fair market value of — Determination under municipal law — Effect of international agreement — The law of the United States of America.War — Effects of outbreak of — Neutral persons and property — Requisition of shipbuilding contracts and material — Compensation for — Effect of waiver of claim by companies affected — Failure to resort to local remedies — Adjudication of responsibility under municipal law and by municipal court — Effect of international agreement — The law of the United States of America.

International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics

THE Eighth General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and of its seven constituent associations, was held at Oslo during August 19-28. The opening assembly, held in the large hall (‘Aula') of the University of Oslo, was attended by the King of Norway and the Crown Prince. The Government of Norway and the municipality and the -University of Oslo extended the most generous hospitality to the Union. A large amount of careful preparation had been done by the Norwegian Organising Committee under the chairmanship of Prof. H. Solberg, secretary of the Academy of Science and Letters.

Congress of Leprologists.

New York, Aug. 4, 1896. To the Editor: —It has seemed desirable to publish all over the world the fact that the government of Norway will next year probably convoke a congress of leprologists, and delegates from all civilized countries, especially from those which, by the suffering of their own people, are especially interested in the question of leprosy. Hansen, the discoverer of the bacillus, suggested that this congress should be held at Bergen, Norway, and out of compliment to him we suppose that there will be no opposition to this proposition. Dr. Goldschmidt, a Paris physician who has practiced among lepers during twenty-six years in Madeira, has originated the scheme. You will find inclosed my correspondence with this eminent leprologist which I hereby authorize you to publish. The American, Mexican, Japanese and Chinese governments, also all the Republics of South America, who are evidently and considerably interested in the