http://hdl.handle.net/1956/1311 http://bora.uib.no/retrieve/5474 http://hdl.handle.net/1956/1311 Search the Channel search http://bora.uib.no/simple-search http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2224 Title: Contraception, abortion and state socialism : categories in birth control discourses and policies <br/> <br/>Authors: Stenvoll, Dag <br/> <br/>Abstract: The article is about the politics of birth control in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). I will map abortion and contraception policies and discourses during and after state socialism, with Russia, Poland and Romania as main cases. Furthermore, historical and contemporary constructions of birth control in these countries are contrasted to western European debates, in order to denaturalise implicit assumptions in the different contexts. The analytical focus will in particular be on the conceptual distinction between contraception and abortion and on different normative assessments of these two categories, with examples from ‘border conflicts’ – controversies on whether a phenomenon is the one or the other. The rhetoric of ‘choice’ in abortion debates and its implicit assumptions will also be discussed. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2120 Title: The EU Fight Against Poverty and Social Exclusion : Activation,Targeting and the Sustainability of the Welfare State <br/> <br/>Authors: Nilssen, Even <br/> <br/>Abstract: At the Lisbon Council of March 2000, the EU member states agreed that they should coordinate their policies for combating poverty and social exclusion on the basis of an open method of coordination (OMC). This paper focuses on the main discourses which are expressed through the OMC in the field of social inclusion. Empirically it is concentrating on the joint reports by the European Council and the Commission and on National Action Plans from some member states (Germany, UK and Denmark). The paper states that 1) the definition of problems is closely related to a more general discourse on the sustainability of the welfare state; 2) the main solutions are founded in discourses concerning «activation» and «targeting social benefits». Social policy has to a large extent become labour market policy. Despite some differences between the selected countries, this seems to be the general trends in European social policy; 3) these trends are not created by the OMC process, but it is fair to say that they are strengthened by it, and 4) the general discourses are not presented in a normative/moral language, but expressed in a purely instrumental fashion. The Social Inclusion Strategy (SIS) in the EU is subjected to economical rather than moral or ethical considerations. Nevertheless, it also affects some important questions of justice primarily related to the balance between rights and duties. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2041 Title: Omorganisering av konkurransetilsynet <br/> <br/>Authors: Bertelsen, Merete Mæland <br/> <br/>Abstract: Dette notatet er basert på en detaljert studie av endringer i organiseringen av regulerings- og konkurransepolitikken i perioden 2001–2006, med omorganiseringen av Konkurransetilsynet som case. I denne perioden foregikk to parallelle politiske prosesser som endte i ny konkurranselov og en omlokalisering av Konkurransetilsynet. Både prosessen med endring av konkurranseloven og med utflytting av Konkurransetilsynet ble igangsatt av regjering og departement, men de var i ulik grad åpene for andre aktører til å delta med sine problemdefinisjoner og løsningsforslag. Det var også stor forskjell i engasjement i de to prosessene fra både formelle og uformell aktører. Forslag om flytting av tilsynet vakte langt sterkere reaksjoner enn lovforslaget. Forslagene som fremmes viser en utvikling i retning av et ønske om større autonomi for Konkurransetilsynet i forhold til departement og den politiske ledelse, og en styrket posisjon som tilsynsorgan både i forhold til andre tilsyn og i forhold til tilsynsobjekter. Internasjonal påvirkning, tilpasning til forvaltningspolitiske trender, sterke nasjonale aktører, timing og strategi, forhandlinger, og tilfeldigheter, har medvirket til utfallet av prosessene. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2040 Title: European Pension Policy Initiatives and National Reforms : Between Financial Sustainability and Adequacy <br/> <br/>Authors: Ervik, Rune <br/> <br/>Abstract: The EU Open method of Coordination (OMC) represents one strategy for pension reform that ideally combines agreement on common objectives with different institutional and national approaches as means of reaching these objectives. This paper will focus on the OMC in pensions, seen as representing a pension policy discourse, and how it relates to national pension policy in three particular countries; two member states; Germany and the UK and one non-member country; Norway. Each of the three countries represents different welfare state and pension models, i.e. the Bismarck-, the Beveridge-, and the Nordic model respectively. Two key questions are addressed: Does the OMC process promote a particular kind of pension system model through its goal of providing adequate, sustainable and modernized pensions? How does it compare to and does it challenge existing national systems as found in the three selected cases in terms of their institutional and normative foundations? In addition the paper briefly discusses in what way the OMC in pension potentially impact national pension debates and reforms. The empirical material applied for analysis focuses mainly on the National Strategy Reports and the Joint reports by the Commission and the Council. Theoretically an institutional perspective is followed stressing the interaction between different institutions of pension provision and the adhering discourses surrounding these institutions. Thus, institutions are seen as instruments for solving problems (for instance income security in old age) and at the same time they are expressing a normative content inherent in their specific solutions. In this way each pension pillar (seen as an institution) contains its own more or less particular discourse. This paper distinguishes between three particular discourses: Social right-, status security-, and a private pension discourse. Analysing the OMC pension discourse as laid out in the Joint reports, the following key elements are identified: Firstly, the issue of financial sustainability takes precedence over the goal of adequacy. To obtain sustainability there is a need to raise employment rates and to stem growth in public pension expenditures. Secondly, this argumentation implies a new division of pension pillars by increasing the role of occupational and private pensions. In addition, it entails internal normative changes of pension pillars by strengthening traits known from private pension insurance. Thirdly, the goal of adequacy is shaped by the financial sustainability discourse and its focus on public pension expenditures. Fourthly, seen as a pension model the OMC on pensions promotes a hybrid model of pension provision containing elements from all three pension systems, but with the important qualification that it is really «hybridization with a bias». This means that the model represents a new pension blend that contains fewest traits from the Bismarckian model and with more prominence to elements known from multi-pillar systems as well as minimum pension guarantees as found in the new postreform Nordic model. From this follows that this hybrid pension model has various implications in terms of challenges to national paradigms: In the German case we find a clear move away from public first pillar provision and increasing reliance on second and third pillar provision. In addition, focus on minimum security challenge the status security orientation of the German system. For the UK there is no confrontation in terms of financial sustainability, implying a continuance of the tradition of pension privatisation, and providing a complex system of means tested benefits to secure minimum security. For the Norwegian case the hybrid OMC paradigm represents a challenge in terms of increasing reliance on occupational pension provision in providing standard security and by containing future public pension spending. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2039 Title: Modern Regulatory Agencies : Professional and Judicial Objectivity or Increased Complexity in Decision-Making? <br/> <br/>Authors: Christensen, Tom; Lægreid, Per <br/> <br/>Abstract: I dette notatet undersøker vi vilkårene for å gjennomføre den nye regulerings- og tilsynspolitikken i Norge. Vi undersøker både prosessen i forbindelse med regjeringens tilsynsmelding og beslutningsprosser i forbindelse med utvalgte tilsyn. Vi argumenterer for at reguleringsorganene opererer i en kompleks politisk-administrativ kontekst, og at vi må kombinere instrumentelle og institusjonelle perspektiver for å forstå hvordan de fungerer i praksis. En rasjonell-økonomisk tilnærming holdes opp mot en transformativ tilnærming som omfatter organisasjonsstrukturelle elementer, kulturelle komponenter og trekk ved institusjonaliserte omgivelser. Vi beskriver hvordan den nye reguleringspolitikken ble introdusert i Norge og fokuserer på reformer av tilsynsorgan i to sektorer så vel som reguleringspraksis i to tilsynsorgan. Hovedbildet er at det er en løs kopling mellom det idealet som OECD reguleringsreformer forutsetter og a) den generelle tilsynspolitikk i Norge, b) reorganisering av tilsynsorgan i utvalgte sektorer og c) hvordan reguleringspraksisen utøves i utvalgte tilsyn i konkrete saker. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2037 Title: Utvikling av forvaltningsrevisjon i Norge <br/> <br/>Authors: Grahm-Haga, Kaia Christina Irmelinsdatter <br/> <br/>Abstract: Dette notatet er basert på en detaljert studie av utvikling av forvaltningsrevisjon hos Riksrevisjonen. Den tar for seg utviklingen av revisjonsformen i policy og praksis fra 1994 til 2005. Tidsperioden er valgt fordi det er i denne perioden Riksrevisjonen har oversendt forvaltningsrevisjonsrapporter i dokument 3-serien til Stortinget. Policy omfatter fem ulike forvaltningspolitiske virkemidler. Dette er lover og retningslinjer, strategiplaner og andre sentrale dokumenter, organisering av forvaltningsrevisjon, personell samt økonomiske ressurser. Praksis konkretiseres til å være de oversendte dokument 3-rapportene. På enkelte områder analyseres samtlige rapporter, men hovedsakelig studeres tre årganger. Utviklingen av policy og praksis fremstilles hver for seg, men sammenhengen mellom dem belyses også. Studiet er gjennomført ved dokumentanalyse av et omfattende datagrunnlag, i tillegg til intervjuer med sentrale aktører. Utviklingen og endringen av forvaltningsrevisjon er preget av vekst og prioritering, standardisering og formalisering, samt profesjonalisering og spesialisering. Endringene har skjedd både i policy og praksis, og er til dels store. Hovedtyngden av endringer i policy kommer i 1996 og i etterkant av opprettelsen av en egen spesialisert avdeling for forvaltningsrevisjon, mens endringene i praksis kommer sterkest til syne i årgang to som analyseres (1999–2000). Studien viser at forvaltningsrevisjon raskt har blitt institusjonalisert, og at revisjonsformen i dag utgjør en viktig og naturlig del av Riksrevisjonens virksomhet. Totalt har satsingen på forvaltningsrevisjon revitalisert Riksrevisjonen som kontrollorgan. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2036 Title: Modern Management Tools in Norwegian State Agencies : Regulation Inside Government or Shopping Basket? <br/> <br/>Authors: Lægreid, Per; Rubecksen, Kristin; Roness, Paul G. <br/> <br/>Abstract: This paper focuses on the broad package of modern management tools that are used by Norwegian state organizations. These tools are regarded as forms of regulation inside government as well as a shopping basket. We describe the range of different tools and look at how intensively they are used and how they are interrelated. We also examine variations in use of these tools by different state organizations. The database is a survey addressed to all organizations in the Norwegian civil service, apart from the ministries, in 2004. Our theoretical approach is primarily based on neo-institutional theory. Our main empirical findings are that the use of modern management tools is widespread; that some are very common while others are more marginal; that there are different families of tools that supplement each other; that there is significant variation in the use of different tools; and that agency size is the most important factor in explaining the use of different tools. http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2035 Title: Reform of the Employment and Welfare Administrations : The Challenges of Co-ordinating Diverse Public Organisations <br/> <br/>Authors: Christensen, Tom; Fimreite, Anne Lise; Lægreid, Per <br/> <br/>Abstract: This paper addresses one of the most comprehensive structural reforms in recent Norwegian administrative history: a merger of the employment and national insurance administrations, combined with more formal collaboration with the local government social services administration. The reform can be seen as a «whole-of-government» initiative intended to increase the co-ordinative capacity of government to address «wicked problems» cutting across existing policy areas and government levels in a multi-level governance system. This paper examines the following questions: First, what characterises the organisational thinking related to this reform? Second, how can we understand the reform process in terms of a transformative perspective combining instrumental, cultural and environmental features? Third, what would we expect to be the greatest specialisation and co-ordination challenges of the chosen structure? Fourth, what are the potential effects and implications of the new structure for political control and institutional autonomy, for relations between central and local administrations, and for the main goals stated?