Premium
The Fourth Level of Government: on the Standardization of Public Policy within International Regions*
Author(s) -
Egeberg Morten
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1980.tb00247.x
Subject(s) - standardization , argument (complex analysis) , hierarchy , context (archaeology) , norwegian , government (linguistics) , political science , public administration , politics , perception , public policy , public relations , law , epistemology , geography , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy
Both in the literature and in public documents one usually operates with three levels of government: local, regional, and national. This may be partly due to a common perception of coordination and standardization as something that takes place only through hierarchical forms of organization. However, if we realize that coordination and standardization may also take place through other organizational forms, as for instance bargaining, consultation, and autonomous adjustment, we can add A fourth level of government. At the same time, hierarchy seems considerably modified at the national levels. Thus, a central argument is that ‘national’ policies cannot be adequately explained by ‘national’ politics alone. Some data from the Norwegian context are used to illustrate this argument.