Norway: The Reluctant Adopter of Marketization

The focus in this chapter is on how marketization has developed in Norway during the last 40 years and what organizational changes have occurred in local road and park services. Qualitative evidence and survey data suggest that contracting-out to private entrepreneurs has a long tradition in Norway’s technical service provision, but marketization with its imperatives of competition and performance management goes only two decades back in time in the municipal road and park sectors. Central state authorities having the responsibility for roads have been key in initiating the development through early reforms of service delivery systems by splitting the responsibilities of purchaser and provider. The municipalities have followed suit within the road and park sectors to prepare the basis for competitive tendering. However, in contrast to the general development of marketization in Norway at the state level, many municipalities seem to grapple with the ‘fundamentals’ of marketization.