Two decades of New Public Management have placed agencifiction high on the agenda of administrative policy-makers. However, agencification (and de-agencification) has been one of the enduring themes of public administration. Agencies organized at arm’s length from ministerial departments have...

Previous studies have shown that agencification tends to undermine political control within a government portfolio. However, doubts have been raised as regards the robustness of these findings. In this paper we document that agency officials pay significantly less attention to signals from...

Against the backdrop of decades of public sector reforms in Europe, this essay aims to make sense of the processes through which institutions, democratic government included, achieve and lose autonomy or primacy and why it is difficult to find a state of equilibrium between democratic government...

How is the EU utilizing national bureaucracies, this paper asks. It reports findings from semi-structured interviews with ship inspectors and their superiors about international training efforts aimed at harmonizing inspections. The maritime sector, with its highly institutionalized global...

A key feature of democratic political systems is their ability to collect, generate and disseminate information and thereby to improve policies and practices. Multi-lateral institutions in general, and the European Union in particular, are often seen as decision making systems where technocratic...

Nasjonale administrasjoner, eller mer korrekt, deler av nasjonale administrasjoner, har i noen grad også blitt deler av hva vi kan kalle en felles EU-administrasjon. Dette synes å henge sammen med to institusjonelle utviklingstrekk: På det europeiske nivået er det konsolideringen av...

The jury is still out with respect to whether EU-level agencies act primarily as tools of national governments or not, although parts of the literature as well as the legal framework of EU agencies seem to favour the former interpretation. We argue that EU agencies which might be able to act...

The jury is still out with respect to whether EU-level agencies act primarily as tools of national governments or not, although parts of the literature as well as the legal framework of EU agencies seem to favour the former interpretation. We argue that EU agencies which might be able to act...

Nasjonale administrasjoner, eller mer korrekt, deler av nasjonale administrasjoner, har i noen grad også blitt deler av hva vi kan kalle en felles EU-administrasjon. Dette synes å henge sammen med to institusjonelle utviklingstrekk: På det europeiske nivået er det konsolideringen av...

Nasjonale administrasjoner, eller mer korrekt, deler av nasjonale administrasjoner, har i noen grad også blitt deler av hva vi kan kalle en felles EU-administrasjon. Dette synes å henge sammen med to institusjonelle utviklingstrekk: På det europeiske nivået er det konsolideringen av...