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The Public Sector in a Democratic Order. Problems and Non‐Solutions in the Danish Case
Author(s) -
Damgaard Erik
Publication year - 1982
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.1467-9477.1982.tb00266.x
Subject(s) - polity , politics , elite , danish , democracy , political science , government (linguistics) , public administration , public sector , order (exchange) , public policy , political system , political economy , sociology , economics , law , philosophy , linguistics , finance
The literature of the last decade indicates two important lessons for future research. The first is that political scientists and scholars in related fields have rediscovered the nature and ubiquity of politics. In particular, they have realized that neither public administration nor organization theory can solve political issues. The second lesson is that the growth of government has enlarged the list of important political actors with the addition of numerous ‘public’ groups, organizations, and institutions. The combined message of the two lessons is that analyses of the public sector and policy‐making should be sensitive to the importance of political actors in the public sector. This paper is a preliminary attempt (based on elite questionnaire data) to map the general structure of the Danish policy‐making system by focusing on the interactions among government bureaucrats, interest organizations, and MPs. These elites are further included in an analysis of public expenditure problems, with particular emphasis on the (often neglected) role of political parties and their relationships to various groups and segments of society. The emergent overall picture of the policy‐making system indicates problems that presumably cannot be ‘solved’ within the framework of a democratic polity.