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Nordic Public Management Reforms Seen from the Top: Adaptive and Agile Governments

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Finnish Public Administration

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Abstract

This chapter examines current administrative reforms in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It addresses how Nordic central government executives perceive reform processes, trends, contents, and management instruments. The database is a survey of top civil servants in ministries and central agencies. The chapter reveals that the Nordic countries are eager and pragmatic reformers. There is a high level of reform activity and public involvement. The reforms aim to improve services more than cut costs. The Nordic model emerges as agile and adaptive. New reform elements have been added to the existing administrative models.

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Correspondence to Niels Ejersbo .

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Ejersbo, N., Greve, C., Lægreid, P., Rykkja, L.H. (2023). Nordic Public Management Reforms Seen from the Top: Adaptive and Agile Governments. In: Pekkola, E., Johanson, JE., Mykkänen, M. (eds) Finnish Public Administration. Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34862-4_2

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