Still Fragmented Government or Reassertion of the Centre?

Traditionally, political and administrative systems in Western democracies are based on a complex set of norms and values that are balanced in different and often ambiguous ways. This government model allows for trade-offs and prioritizing between different values and goals within the same organization (Olsen 1997; Christensen and Lægreid 2003b; Lægreid, Opedal and Stigen 2005). Since the early 1980s, however, this multifunctional and hence complex civil service model has been challenged in many countries by New Public Management (NPM), which offers more one-dimensional solutions to complex structures and problems (Self 2000).