Good governance in Norway (transparency, participation, accountability and effectiveness)

Good governance in Norway
On the central and de-centralized level

No introduction or conclusions

Transparency – 2000 words
– definition
Some theory of the joys of transparency (democratic argument, effectiveness argument and human rights argument
how this operates on the central and de-centralized level
Discuss availability, accessibility and clarity of information
Who should be transparent, about what and when
– information act
Discuss how it increases democracy, participation and accountability as well as trust and legitimacy. Increases government efficiency and prevents corruption. Helps economic and social rights. Helps create legal certainty and is an inherent principe of proper administration

Participation – 2000 words
definition – The right to seek to determine or to influence the exercise of an authority’s powers and responsibilities
Who gets to participate • In making which decisions • At what stage • To what degree
Talk about voter turn out who can and cannot vote – what are the conditions
Talk about decision making of local authorities
At what stage can Norwegians participate – setting the agenda of parliament, preparatory stages, decision making or implementation and enforcement. Also look at this at the local level
Democracy • Effectiveness/efficiency – Expert participation – Selected stakeholder participation • Protecting individual interests • Intrinsic value – is it good that we participate rather than leaving it to the experts…?
Internal vs external conflicts
Does participation lead to conflicts against effectiveness
Vertical vs horizontal participation
Does the CLEAR model exist: can norwegians vote, do they like to vote, are they enabled to vote, asked to vote and are they responded to…

Accountability – 2000 words
definition discuss history as it is an old concept
why do we want accountability
how does it work in norway
how is the parliament and local councils held accountable
what are they accountable for
disucss
institutions that ensure accountability like ombudsmen and court of audit but very brief mention of this.

Effectiveness – 2000 words
definition
why it is needed – to know whether a certain regulation had indeed produced a desired result
timely resuts
talk about effectiveness at state level
talk about effectiveness on the local level.