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Public Administration Research in Norway: Organization theory, institutionalism and empirical studies in a democratic context
Author(s) -
Christensen Tom,
Lægreid Per
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.0033-3298.2004.00413.x
Subject(s) - pluralism (philosophy) , democracy , politics , new institutionalism , public administration , norwegian , democratic theory , context (archaeology) , organizational theory , institutionalism , sociology , institutional theory , political science , rationality , public sphere , positive economics , social science , epistemology , economics , law , management , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , biology
This article gives a broad overview of Norwegian research on public administration over the past 40 years. The main picture that emerges is that a Norwegian public administration built primarily on Webernian principles has lost some but not all these original properties. It describes a research tradition based on organizational theory and democratic theory. It also paints a picture of public administration as integrated into a complex network of domestic political institutions, public agencies, organized interests and clients, as well as extensive European and international networks. It shows how a strong theoretical tradition, based on bounded rationality, is supplemented by different types of institutional theories and increased theoretical pluralism. Finally, the paper underlines the importance of considering public administration not simply from an internal technical viewpoint, but of placing the discipline in a wider political and democratic context.