The Quality of Coordination in Norwegian Central Government

This paper addresses the quality of coordination in Norwegian central government as perceived by top civil servants. We study both perceptions of horizontal and vertical coordination and perceptions of policy coherence and coordination. We examine how various coordination reforms and arrangements have changed these perceptions and what role structural, cultural and demographic features play. The empirical basis of the analysis is a survey of administrative executives in Norwegian ministries and central agencies conducted in 2012. While these executives tend to evaluate vertical coordination in their own policy area as pretty good, they identify problems with other types of coordination — specifically horizontal coordination across policy areas, downward coordination with the local and regional levels, upward coordination with the international level, and lateral coordination with stakeholders in the private and voluntary sectors. Perceptions of how well coordination works depend to a large degree on the coordination reform tools used and on structural features. The most important explanatory factors seem to be the administrative level of the respondent and how he or she perceives the impact of collaboration and cooperation reforms.