New organisational solutions in Norwegian local councils: Leaving a puzzling role for local politicians?

Inspired by the concept of New Public Management, recent organisational alt erations in Norwegian local councils have aimed to change the role of local politicians from a traditional to a strategic political one. Traditionally , local politicians have been involved in the day-to-day activities of the council, and have tended to address single issues and details. Strategic le adership implies, however, a withdrawal from close contact with the service departments and a primary focus on (preferably pivotal) issues of a genera l and/ or principle nature, such as budgeting, goal setting, and planning. In addition, establishment of stronger coordinating bodies is emphasised. D rawing on evidence from a large body of research, it is concluded that so f ar, for the ordinary local politician, the new role is rather puzzling, tha t is, confusing and perplexing, thus creating a certain sense of uneasiness . Two theoretical reasons for this state of affairs are presented. First, i t is demonstrated that some of the chosen organisational solutions simply c annot be assumed to work as intended. Second, it is argued that the concept of strategic political leadership represents such a challenge to the local politicians' traditional behaviour that a certain amount of reluctance and prevarication is to be expected. The article concludes with a discussion o f why the changes have taken place in several municipalities, despite the d emonstrable weaknesses in the basic idea. One suggested reason is the impro vements to the working conditions of the political and administrative elite as a result of the changes.