In 2019, the government apparatus of Erna Solberg became historically large when KrF entered the constellation. In total, 93 stools were needed to accommodate all the ministers, state secretaries and advisers. The extension put the head of government on the defensive and meant that she had to respond to an earlier promise to slim down the bureaucracy. There was also irony over an earlier statement by Senior Minister Victor Norman that 19 ministers did not correspond to the idea of the government as “a closely cooperating body”. After joining the KrF, 22 ministers sat around the King’s table. Kåre Willoch once said that the optimal number was 12 ministers. Here together with Jo Benkow (H) and Johan J. Jakobsen (Sp) in 1983. Photo: Bjørn Sigurdsøn / NTB In Dagens Næringsliv, SP leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum characterized the growth as “a fluke”. – We are getting more ministers, not to make Norway better, but to create a better internal climate in the government, he said. Four years later, Vedum is on the other side of the table. What does the count show now? Yes, that the government college is even slightly larger – a total of 97 positions. The sum is distributed among 20 ministers, 56 state secretaries and 21 advisers. Vedum: – Høgre is free to rant – Here Vedum meets himself at the door, and there have been a few such reunions after he became finance minister, says 1st deputy head of Høgre, Henrik Asheim. He points out that the Solberg government in 2019 consisted of four parties, while the Støre government only included two. – Nevertheless, the device is bigger than ours. Now I hope all 97 have had a nice Christmas celebration and are ready for a new political year. They seem to need all the help they can get, he teases. news has been in contact with Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, who points out that today there are fewer ministers (20) than there were during the Solberg regime (22). He adds: – That Høgre wants to have a little fun with this at Christmas, they are free to do that. Right now, we are mostly busy with bringing down price growth and ensuring good services throughout Norway. When Kjell Magne Bondevik became head in 1997, there were a total of 34 people in the government apparatus. Photo: Morten Holm / NTB – A symptom of increasing complexity – The size of the Norwegian public sector is at the top of the world. The growth in political leadership is a small, condensed expression of this problem, says Einar Lie, who is professor of history at the University of Oslo. At the overall level, he sees an “unfortunate tendency” that we are moving away from a large permanent civil service and little political leadership, and towards a “revolving door situation” with more and more people going in (and out) when new governments come to. The size of the public sector was last on the agenda in an open dispute between Civita leader Kristin Clemet and SV deputy leader Kari Elisabeth Kaski. In an article in Aftenposten, Clemet claimed that the public sector has never been bigger and that “it is interesting that this development does not seem to worry the government”. – There are several challenges with the growth Jørgen Bølstad, professor at the Department of Statistics, UiO – There are several challenges with the growth in the number of ministers and advisers. One is of course the wage costs themselves, but just as important is the question of whether the work internally in the government works better or worse when there are more people who have to be coordinated. – Perhaps the most important question is how the number of ministers affects the government’s ability to prioritize and hold back on public spending. The Minister of State will typically want to “win” in their area, and preferably not appear as budgetary losers. Norwegian politicians have long had it quite simply in that they have been able to constantly phase in more money from oil and gas rather than making difficult priorities. The demographic changes mentioned above mean that the need to prioritize will become stronger in the coming decades. Coalition governments with many ministers are unlikely to make this easier. – The government team we have put together is a team to govern the country safely and responsibly throughout the time we are in, says Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum. Photo: NTB Political scientist and election analyst Svein Tore Marthinsen tells news that a larger government apparatus is “a symptom of the increasing complexity in top politics”. – It is easy to be critical of the development in opposition, worse to do something about it in position, he says. He nevertheless warns that the number of advisers and secretaries can jeopardize democratic legitimacy. – The more people who are in the support apparatus, the more people have politics as a profession. At a time when trust in the political system has fallen, there is hardly anything that will help restore trust. On the contrary. – I hope all 97 have had a nice Christmas celebration. They seem to need all the help they can get, says 1st deputy head of Høgre, Henrik Asheim. Here represented by a pose he has taken self-criticism on in his own podcast Stortingsrestauranten. Photo: NTB – Politicians come and go; expedition chiefs consist of Astrid Hauge Rambøl in Manifest Analysis says that “for us without understanding, it may look like the state secretaries are primarily being sent out into the storm to receive criticism”. – Considering the popularity of the government, I can understand that it is tempting to have several shock absorbers to protect oneself behind, she quips. – In addition, it is an important point that these positions are tax-financed. Leader of Tankesmien Agenda, Trygve Svensson, is milder in the pinch: – That just under a hundred people work with the executive power is not so crazy. I think it is good that it is not like in the USA, where many thousands become politically appointed. But it means that we have to be observant of the power of the civil service. – Politicians come and go, while expedition managers remain. – Strikingly easy for the government to recruit within its own ranks Anders Todal Jenssen, professor of political science at NTNU – It is probably easier to create “lean” organizations when you have one-party governments. The wider the coalition, the more they have to look out for each other, for example by having their own state secretaries in “the others'” ministry. From a power perspective, I still think it is more important if the power in the electoral channel is weakened by an increasingly dense bureaucratic jungle of directorates, supervisory powers and other “beings”. Einar Lie, professor of history at the University of Oslo – More and more people are coming in when new governments are established. And it is, in a very direct way, the political leadership itself that drives the development. The growth in the number of ministers is a slightly different matter. Here, traditional divisions, personal cabals and the need to send signals work together to create wholes. There is also a huge difference in the workload and responsibility between the ministers. The size of the government is probably the largest in order to create a functioning working community in the government. But the growth in political leadership in general is, in my eyes, a bigger challenge. Astrid Hauge Rambøl, analyst at Manifest Analysis – We must of course have a sufficiently well-staffed government apparatus, but it is striking that it is incredibly easy for the government to staff its own ranks, at the same time that employees in schools, kindergartens and health care have been calling for a long time out that they need more colleagues, to no avail. We must also not forget that the parliamentary election gave a #superior victory to the left, with 100 parliamentary representatives for the red-green team. Then there is no reason to rejoice over even more non-elected government officials, who to a greater or lesser extent seem to have abandoned the vision that it is now the turn of ordinary people. Mathilde Fasting, Civita adviser and host of the podcast “Liberal halftime” – Will Vedum meet himself at the door? Yes, I would say he does. It is not good that the advisory corps “goes out” and it should not be a law of nature that the number of stools increases with each revolution. It seems that it is easier to increase than to try to reduce complexity in those areas where possible. Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, SP manager – It has been some demanding years that we have now gone through, with an uneasy world and more unrest. The government team we have now is put together to solve the challenges we face above, and is a team to govern the country safely and responsibly throughout the time we are in. Then Henrik Asheim and Høgre will be able to spend their time on what they themselves want. I wish everyone, regardless of party colour, a happy and safe Christmas!
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The Støre government has 97 employees – news Vestland
