Local government and administrative structure in Norway an introduction

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Local government and administrative structure in
Norway an introduction

• Øyvind Glosvik
• Associate Professor
• Sogn og Fjordane University College

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Constitutional foundation

• Norway is a unitary state with no formal,
  constitutional role of local selfgovernment
• Local government is a consequence of a
  difficult geography, traditions (1835), and
  policy
• A strong feeling of independece and expectations
  of participation in national matters creates the
  idea of local self-government.

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Political and adminstrative structure
GovernmentPM18 ministers
Ministry of local government and regional
development
169 members
Managed trough legislation and budget
Directorates
Independent agencies
County Governor
Parliament - Storting
18 Counties
Government staff on local level
Counties
Service providers
General election
Local election
434 Municipalities (2003)
2001-2005
2003-2007
2-4 year sycles
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Levels and institutions
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What is a municipality?

• An independent political unity direct elections
  every 4. year. Council, Mayor, The Executive
• Responsible for compulsory service provision
• Primary schools, primary health services, nursery
  schools, libraries, local roads, fire
  protection, social service, child protection, old
  age care
• Voluntary service provision Cinema, sports
  arenas,
• Planning (social, but first of all LAND
  PLANNING!)
• A general public authority with legislative power
  in some matters
• The most important implementor of Central
  Government policies in land plannning and
  management, welfare policies, school policies,
  transport..

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But most important..(?)

• They are communites (kommune)
• The lowest functional level in political and
  social sense
• Main arenas for participation
• cultural activites
• sport
• politics (the role as citizen)
• production and consumption of public services
  (where the welfare state meets the customer)

Villages
Municipality
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The municipalities are deeply rooted in our
community as an organising concept..
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Financed trough

• Direct taxes (firms and ind.taxpayers
• Designated grants from central government
• General grants on objective criteria (centrality,
  age structure, size and so on..)
• Income from own property (power companies,
  transport companies (usually subsidised..))
• Parking fines! Cinemas,, beer sale monopolies,

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A municpality Førde

• Second biggest
• Growing fastest
• In the middle of the county
• Services
• Could have been Inverness..
• 590 km2
• 11200 inhabitants

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Førde kommune

• Total spending
• 441 mill NOK
• ( 38 684 210)
• Number of people employed 884
• Man year 610

Central administration Education and nursery
schools Health and social care Culture
Technical
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Central administration

• Office of the Chief Exec.Officer
• Accounting
• Tax Office
• Land Planning
• Agricultural Office
• The Service Market

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Education and nursery schools

• 9 Primary schools (1-4 or 1-7)
• 1 Secondary school (5-10)
• Norwegian-for- immigrants-centre
• Adult training centre
• The music and culture school
• 6 Municipal nursery schools ( 8 private)

• 188 Teachers (qualified pedagical..)
• 40 Assistants to special care pupils
• 39 Nursing school teachers 40 assistants
• Total of 376 employed

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Culture and sport

• Most of the activities trough voluntary
  organisations
• The municipality
• Running of Førdehuset (Library, cinema, sports
  arenas, theatre, art facilities, concert hall).
  Parks
• Supporting organisations (festivals, museums,
  youth activities, the theatre)

• Total budget
• 8 476 204,-

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Building and technical

• In-door-section
• 11 emplyoyed
• Mapping of building sites
• Building regulations
• Building permissions!
• Project management of municipal property
  development

• Out-door-section
• 18 employed
• Fire chief
• Chimney sweepers
• Water supply
• Sewer system
• Municipal roads
• The Fire Brigade Part time

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Social services

• 410 inhabitants needed economical support (down
  from 462)
• 15 addicted sent to institutions. 22 in open
  care
• 95 children in some kind of care or
  action-required

• Social services
• Child care (5,4 man year)
• Immigration service
• Activity centre for Mentally disabled (?)
• Psyciatric Day Centre
• Support service

(Numbers and services close to national average
for this kind of municipality)
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Nursing and care

• 1 Nursing hospital (69 beds)
• Special care homes (79) (22 senior appartments)
• Home nursing (332 patients)
• Home care (259)
• Practical home service (ca 500 users in 2004)

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Health care

• 10 1 GP at the MHC
• 24 hour regional acute (?) medical service
• The Health station (children, pregnant, family
  planning, innoculations (11 nurses and mid-wifes)
  
• School health service
• Fysiotherapy/rehabili-tation (8)

• 22000 routine medical consultations
• 9000 non-routine
• 162 patients in rehabilitation

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On the side..

• The Church self governed but parts of the
  religious services are financed over the
  municipal budget
• Renovation trough inter-municipal service
  organised as a ltd.
• Business development organised
  trough an inter- municipal
  organisation

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Tension in the system (a)
The national view (seen from Oslo)
The lay perspective
The professional perspective
The local view
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Tension in the system (b)
The national view (seen from Oslo)
Sivic society
Market solutions
The local view
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Some political facts about our history (why are
we different..)

• Our civil wars are 1000 years behind us. The
  relationship between us, Denmark and Sweden was
  never as brutal as between the English, the Scots
  and the Irish
• The Norweigan nobility were killed or died in the
  middle ages (The Black Plague)
• The farmers never lost their right to their own
  land (odal law still exist)
• Extremely diffcult to control due to climate and
  transport problems.

• Poor land (agriculture). Difficult to exploit..
• The Union between Norway and Denmark 1200-1814
  was important culturally and administrative. The
  one between Sweden and Norway between 1814-1905
  was not.
• The story of each county and municipality reaches
  far back - into to this period. Our county
  Nordre Bergenhus amt Set up in 1776

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What is different (personal observations)?

• Housing? Never heard of it..
• Who cares about the county level..?
• There is always the municipality to blame..
• The dynamics of local development..
• Point The muncipality is always there to fix
  whatever needs to be done..

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• Skotter, svensker og pakistanere
• Trodde du at innvandring til Norge var et
  moderne fenomen? -Gjennom alle tider har Norge
  vært attraktivt for utlendinger,
• Edvard Grieg og Petter Dass er eksempler på
  nordmenn med skotsk blod i sine årer. Mange
  stedsnavn viser skotsk tilknytning. Langs hele
  kysten finner vi skotske bånd

Publisert 20.01.2003 1226.