Reviews: Teaching Public Administration in the Nordic Countries: A Review Symposium
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00161 |
| Date | 01 June 1999 |
| Published date | 01 June 1999 |
REVIEWS
TEACHING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE
NORDIC COUNTRIES: A REVIEW SYMPOSIUM
ANNE LISE FIMREITE, STIG MONTIN, SIV SANDBERG AND LOTTE
JENSEN
Over the next four issues, Public Administration plans to review some of
the literature that is used for introducing students to public administration
programmes in Europe. The reviewers have also been asked to comment
briefly on the structure of the programmes and the issues the programmes
present – and neglect. Thus, when we are done, the readers should have a
fairly good idea of what is and what is not taught in PA in Europe, and
what are the contents of the introductory books.
In this issue, we start out with the Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden,
Finland and Denmark – in no particular order of priority. Because of their
small size, there is no report on Iceland and the various semi-autonomous
areas of Norden. In the forthcoming issues, we will work our way south-
wards through Western Europe, ending with the Mediterranean countries
of the EU.
A list of books reviewed and other references will appear after each
national contribution.
PETER BOGASON,
Review Editor
Anne Lise Fimreite is at the University of Bergen, Norway; Stig Montin is at the University of O
¨rebro,
Sweden; Siv Sandberg is at the Åbo Akademi University, Finland; and Lotte Jensen is at the Univer-
sity of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Public Administration Vol. 77, No. 2, 1999 (421–450)
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
422 REVIEWS
TEACHING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN NORWAY
ANNE LISE FIMREITE
James March (1997) has said that research in public administration has three
commitments: to understand the detailed context of administrative practice,
to study public administration intimately linked with organizational theory
and to maintain a close connection between the study of public adminis-
tration and democratic political philosophy. These three commitments are
also strong in Norwegian public administration research (Christensen and
Lægreid 1997), and are therefore important elements in teaching in public
administration at Norwegian universities. One implication is that teaching
in public administration is divided into different courses focusing on
organizational theory, democratic theory/political philosophy and adminis-
trative practice. At the undergraduate level at the University of Bergen
there are nine courses: one introductory course; two courses in democratic
theory/political philosophy; two courses in organizational theory; and
three courses focusing on administrative practice; and, finally, one course
in research methodology. It is common to divide courses in administrative
practice into (at least) two parts, one focusing on central administrative
practice and one on local government. The practice courses are rather weak
at integrating the different levels in the administrative and political system
of Norway. The ‘fourth level’ of the administrative system, however, the
European Union, is not a separate teaching focus, and currently only forms
part of the other courses. Norway is not a formal member of the EU, but
it adheres to most of the regulations promulgated by the EU, in order to
maintain a favourable position in various co-operative relationships.
The fragmentary character of teaching in public administration
materializes also in the syllabuses. All levels lack the textbook. One expla-
nation for this can be that teaching has a strong orientation towards
research in public administration, so that it is not oriented towards educat-
ing civil servants. Consequently, there are many articles and monographs
in the syllabuses. Nonetheless, each of the main courses in organizational
theory, in political philosophy and in administrative practice has its main
book. At the undergraduate level at the University of Bergen, the main
books both in organizational theory and in political philosophy are inter-
nationally known textbooks such as W.R. Scott’s Organizations, Rational,
Natural and Open Systems and D. Held’s Models of Democracy. In the adminis-
trative practice parts the literature is mainly Norwegian. Introductory
books/articles mostly have their origins from the ‘Research project on Pow-
er’ from the 1970s and the 1980s and from the ‘LOS-programme’ (a nation-
wide research programme on leadership, organization and governance) in
the 1990s. Among the most important books here are J.P. Olsen’s (1978)
Politisk organisering (Political Organization). This book introduces organiza-
tional theory as a vehicle for understanding democracy, bureaucracy and
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999
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