Norway

Abstract

Agencies and other bodies at arm’s length from political authorities have existed for a long time in the Norwegian state apparatus and can be identified as far back as the mid nineteenth century (Roness 2007). In Norway, the civil service at the national level is divided into small ministries, with different forms of state agencies located outside but reporting to a ministry The number of ministries has remained largely the same since the 1980s (16–18 ministries). In 2009, only a small percentage of civil servants were employed by ministries (about 4,300), while about 159,000 civil servants were employed by state agencies within central government. This number decreased from 185,000 in 1990, mainly due to the transformation of some large agencies and administrative enterprises into state-owned companies.