Summary:

In 2005 the Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, approved a massive reform of the country’s labour-market and welfare administration. After an interim one-year period, the restructuring was implemented in 2006–10. The reform entailed two main changes. First, in central government, administration of national and social insurance, on the one hand, and labourmarket policy on the other was unified in the new Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation (NAV) and its subordinate regional bodies. Second, at municipal level a local partnership between the new agency and local social services, based on a central agreement between the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), was established. Wide-ranging agreements to set up local offices were also signed.

This report starts by outlining the background to the reform. We then describe the reform process, focusing on the various phases of policy initiatives, formulation and adoption. Thereafter, we give an account of the reform implementation, focusing on the transition period, the partnership model and the reorganisation of the reform. Next, we discuss possible effects and repercussions of the reform, including implications for its primary objectives. We then analyse the process in a transformative perspective that emphasises instrumental, cultural and environmental factors, and argue that the reform is a hybrid that exacerbates complexity by incorporating both NPM (New Public Management) and post-NPM elements. Finally, we conclude by reflecting on paradoxes inherent in the reform and the problems of assessing effects.