Premium
End of Big Government: Is It Happening in the Nordic Countries?
Author(s) -
Micheletti Michele
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/0952-1895.00134
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , big government , devolution (biology) , decentralization , corporate governance , globalization , representation (politics) , central government , public administration , economics , business , political science , politics , local government , sociology , market economy , finance , law , philosophy , linguistics , anthropology , human evolution
This paper offers a discussion on how to assess government in the Nordic countries. It shows that an answer to the question of whether big government is ending in the Nordic countries depends on how the words ‘big’ and ‘government’ are defined. ‘Bigness’ can be defined in terms of size or largeness (i.e., number of employees, relative costs, and spheres of involvement). It can also be defined in terms of its importance in society, which concerns the quality of government service (i.e., output and outcome of governmental effort), representation of the will of the people, and social representation. An understanding of the term government also influences how the question of the end of big government is formulated. Classical definitions focus on the need for government to be in control of its territory and in command of the tasks in its sphere of responsibility. Government ability to control and command are now being challenged by unclear horizontal and vertical separation of powers, regionalization and globalization, decentralization and devolution, and involvement of nongovernmental units in the policy steering process (i.e., governance). The general conclusions offered in the paper are that there are trends toward the end of large‐size Nordic government at the central level but not at the other government levels. Government is even becoming larger at the lower levels. Also, the European level is becoming bigger in terms of certain measures of size. A different answer isgiven for government importance. All layers of government still show high levels of efficiency and effectiveness and education levels for civil servants, good reflection of the will of the people as well as improving social representation of women. Social representation is more problematic for other marginalized groups in society. Government control and command is impacted at all levels by the trends mentioned above. Nordic government is more porous, and this is changing the prerequisites for Nordic big government. The results of the study should not be interpreted to mean that the extensive welfare states in the Nordic area are without problems. There are problems with citizen efficacy and public trust.