TY - CHAP A1 - Brinde, Erik A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Houlberg Salomonsen, Heidi ED - Kolltveit, Kristoffer ED - Shaw, Richard T1 - The Swedish Executive: Centralising from Afar T2 - Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective. Governing in Complex Times N2 - With its constitutional separation of power between the executive and administration, over the years Sweden has frequently been held up as a shining example of modern state governance. However, recent decades of internationalising politics, EU membership and growing public-sector complexities have placed greater demands on the Swedish executive. In recent years, the established governance system has changed in several respects. First, the previously highly decentralised system has become more centralised and central-local relations remain tense. Second, at the central level, the government has sought to increase control through politicisation. Third, Swedish pandemic policy highlighted the promises and pitfalls of ‘Swedish dualism’. And fourth, government communication has become ever more mediatised. In consequence, the chapter concludes that what from the outside looks like an exemplar of meritocratic democracy is rather a tactically flexible realpolitik built on interpretive ambiguities in the constitution—providing the Swedish executive with much-needed responsiveness in times of significant change, but also the veil for greater centralisation and control from afar. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94503-9_9 SP - 211 EP - 233 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg ED - Byrkjeflot, Haldor ED - Engelstad, Fredrick T1 - From Neutral Competence to Competent Neutrality? Revisiting Neutral Competence as the Core Normative Foundation of the Western Bureaucracy BT - Comparative Perspectives T2 - Bureaucracy in Transition Y1 - 2018 SN - 9781787432840 SP - 69 EP - 88 PB - Emerald CY - Bingley ET - Comparative Social Research (Yearbook Series) 33 (2018) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Kolltveit, Kristoffer A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg T1 - Ministerial advisers in executive government: Out from the dark and into the limelight. JF - Public Administration N2 - Ministers increasingly rely on advisers for support and advice. In many countries, these political aides are labelled differently. Generally, they serve as close confidants to their political masters and operate in the ‘shadowland’ between politics and bureaucracy. Scholarship has dragged the ministerial advisers out of the dark and described their background and functions. Still, the field of scholarship has a Westminster bias, is characterized by single case studies, and remains under‐theorized. The lack of comparative focus and theoretical underpinnings can be explained by the complex nature of ministerial advisers. This introductory article suggests a definition for ministerial advisers and reviews the extant literature on these important actors. The main argument is that the extent and relevance of ministerial advisers in executive government merits integration into mainstream public administration and political science theory and research. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12329 SN - 1467-9299 VL - 95 IS - 2 SP - 299 EP - 311 ET - Special Issue: Symposium: Ministerial advisers in executive government ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg T1 - Ensuring political responsiveness: Politicization mechanisms in ministerial bureaucracies. JF - International Review of Administrative Sciences N2 - Although politicization is a perennial research topic in public administration to investigate relationships between ministers and civil servants, the concept still lacks clarification. This article contributes to this literature by systematically identifying different conceptualizations of politicization and suggests a typology including three politicization mechanisms to strengthen the political responsiveness of the ministerial bureaucracy: formal, functional and administrative politicization. The typology is empirically validated through a comparative case analysis of politicization mechanisms in Germany, Belgium, the UK and Denmark. The empirical analysis further refines the general idea of Western democracies becoming ‘simply’ more politicized, by illustrating how some politicization mechanisms do not continue to increase, but stabilize – at least for the time being. KW - central administration, ministers and civil servants, political advisers, political responsiveness, politicization, public administration Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852314533449 SN - 0020-8523 (print), 1461-7226 (online) VL - 80 IS - 4 SP - 746 EP - 765 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg T1 - Politikberatung durch die Ministerialverwaltung: Funktionale Differenzierung oder Integration unterschiedlicher Wissensformen JF - der moderne staat (dms) Y1 - 2013 SN - 9783847401179 VL - Sonderheft 1/2013 SP - 203 EP - 221 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg A1 - Flinders, Matthew A1 - Hustedt, Thurid T1 - A comparative analysis of senior civil servants’ involvement in media management JF - Policy & Politics N2 - This article offers results of a comparative case study into how pressures from the media translate into the involvement of senior civil servants (SCSs) in media management and how this is reflected in differentiated ways in politico-administrative relationships. It offers tentative explanations for these differences through the lens of ‘public service bargains’. Based upon a qualitative analysis of documents and 62 interviews with SCSs and advisers in Denmark, Sweden and the UK, the research found that: (i) media management, in some countries, generates an extension and an amplification of the normative expectations towards SCSs’ involvement in media management; (ii) this is accompanied by a revitalisation of the reflections from SCSs to balance their responsiveness to the minister with anonymity and neutrality when involved in media management; (iii) an extensive formal politicisation seems to curb pressures on SCSs’ anonymity and neutrality and their involvement in media management. These findings improve our knowledge of SCSs’ involvement in media management by raising crucial questions about the political neutrality of administrators, tendencies towards politicised governance and (more) interventionist political staffers – amid intensified pressures from the media on governments. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736y2024d000000037 SN - 0305-5736 N1 - Published online 20 May 2024 PB - Bristol University Press ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bach, Tobias A1 - Boon, Jan A1 - Boye, Stefan A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg A1 - Verhoest, Koen A1 - Wegrich, Kai T1 - In the Line of Fire: European Financial Regulators before, during, and after the Crisis JF - der moderne staat Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3224/dms.v12i1.03 VL - 12 IS - 1 SP - 5 EP - 29 ER -