Et demokratisk paradoks: Byr kratisk organisasjon Utskjelt og velbrukt

1. Et demokratisk paradoks:Byr�kratisk organisasjonUtskjelt og velbrukt Johan P. Olsen Arena Center for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway

2. Det f�rste partipolitiske program i Norge (Uelands, 1840-�rene): �... At formindske Embedsm�ndenes Skriveri ved at afskaffe un�dvendigt Regjereri, ved at oph�ve den embedsm�ssige Deltagelse i alle Sager, som uden nogen v�sentlig Fare kunne overlades til Folkets egen Forvaltning�. F. Sejersted: Norges Historie Vol. 10, Den vanskelige frihet 1814-1850. Oslo: Cappelen 1978, s. 356.

3. Sparsomhet, lokalt selvstyre og klasse-makt: �streng og kraftig Kontrol med Rigets Embetsm�nd�. �at indskr�nke den un�dige Vidl�ftighed i (�) det bureaucratiske System�. F. Sejersted: Norges Historie Vol. 10, Den vanskelige frihet 1814-1850. Oslo: Cappelen 1978, s. 356, 378.

4. The Ups and Downs ofBureaucratic Organization Annual Review of Political Science 2008, 11: 13-37, editor Margaret Levi http://polisci.annualreviews.org Prepared for Annual Review of Political Science Vol. 11, ed. Margaret Levi. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.Prepared for Annual Review of Political Science Vol. 11, ed. Margaret Levi. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.

5. The puzzle: Why do democracies give birth to bureaucracies and bureaucrats? How and why has a seemingly undesirable and unviable organizational arrangement been able to weather the criticism and predictions of its demise over so many years and is possibly experiencing a renaissance?

6. Outline The puzzle Bureaucracy and democracy Revisiting Weber De-bureaucratization as opening up towards society Rediscovering bureaucracy The main lesson: Shifting mixes of enduring organizational forms Explaining the ups and downs of bureaucracy

7. Democracy and bureaucracy An uneasy relationship: both a threat and a functional necessity? Normative democratic theory: An ambiguous guide

8. Administrative dynamics driven by: Functional performance Cultural prescriptions and normative validity Power distributions

9. Bureaucracy: A composite organization: hierarchy, rules and knowledge Embedded in three gate-keeping institutions: The legislature/executive, the Courts of law and the University

10. De-bureaucratization as opening up towards society Results, not rules Citizens� participation, not a dominant center Mixed trust in expertise

11. Rediscovering bureaucracy Reasons for rules Quest for democratic leadership Demands for merit-based public administration

12. Identifying trends is a complicated task: the composite nature of bureaucratic organization, in which change along different dimensions is not always positively correlated. large-scale reform efforts are multi-faceted and based on partly contradictory aims and ideas. reform implies intervention in established institutional arrangements, and there were many starting points, not a single one. the precise consequences of organizational reforms have not been well documented, and they are difficult to disentangle.

13. A preliminary conclusion: In contrast to the currently popular idea of a post-bureaucratic world, contemporary democracies live with enduring tensions among institutional principles and behavioral logics - dilemmas to which there are no agreed-upon, enduring answers. Even moderately complex polities use a repertoire of overlapping, supplementary and competing forms, and it is unlikely that there will be an end to bureaucracy, markets, or participatory networks in the near future.

14. The main lesson: shifting mixes not administrative convergence and a monotonic development towards bureaucratization, as argued by Max Weber not de-bureaucratization, as argued by his critics neither a simple sequence of dominant forms several normative and organizational principles have co-existed. Yet while the components have been fairly stable, the significance of each component and their relationships has varied over time

15. Return to the puzzle: There is a loose coupling between bureaucratic rhetoric and practice, between what is said and done. At the rhetorical level Weber has lost At the practical level the old dog is well and alive

16. Exploring explanations There is no agreed-upon empirical theory that identifies the mechanisms and determinants of (de)bureaucratization and the conditions under which public administration works well according to democratic standards.

17. Distrust in holistic models Holistic visions such as Weberian bureaucracy, markets, and participatory networks predict and prescribe a single dominant model Yet, there is little reason to believe that a single set of principles for organizing public administration is functionally and normatively superior and that one form will replace the others and result in convergence

18. Importing theoretical ideas: Interpretations of public administration have relied upon ideas from public law, market economics, and democratic politics In search of elements of a genuine administrative theory

19. Understanding the changing mix of endurable and legitimate forms: Possible processes driving the ups and downs of bureaucracy? Partly autonomous institutions, human agency, and macro-historical forces all matter, but there is no agreement regarding under which conditions one matters more than the others and how their mutual influence of can best be theorized.