By comparing findings from the Nordic context with findings from a different political culture, the French, POLITEX aims to shed light on the role of both formal institutional structures and informal norms in the shaping of government practices.
POLITEX asks four fundamental and interrelated questions:
- What are the status and functions of the government cabinet?
- How does the cabinet make its decisions?
- What characterizes and shapes the role of the cabinet minister?
- How are norms about agenda setting, decision-making, and roles in the cabinet transferred to new office holders?
The project also studies the persistent tension a cabinet is in, between fragmenting forces (e.g., multiparty governments and sectoral specialization) and integrating forces (e.g., decision rules and a strong PMO).
In political science and legal scholarship, formal regulations and institutional structures have often been privileged objects of studies. When the cabinet barely exists constitutionally, as in Norway, approaches focusing on norms and socialization must also be used to understand cabinet practice. Therefore, POLITEX combines sociological and historical perspectives with perspectives from political science and legal scholarship.
This meeting and workshop will also take stock of data gathering and text production, plan for complementary data gathering and further publications, as well as lay the grounds for a follow up project and application for new funding.
Organizer: Jostein Askim, UiO