ABSTRACT
The rise of local publicness in Norway both distinguished itself from other countries and followed patterns that prevailed across North America and Europe c. 1850–1920. Prior to the 1870s, Norwegian municipalities had already attained far-reaching power and competence to run their rural and urban areas, due to the communal reform of 1837 and widespread traditions of communalism. The capital, Kristiania (later Oslo), along with other big cities in Norway, had grasped at opportunities to establish savings banks, regular schools led by educated teachers, municipal water systems and urban sewer lines against the backdrop of the cholera epidemics and were ultimately able to expand their municipal areas, regulating streets, buildings, harbours and so on. In the period c. 1890–1920, Norway came to follow North Atlantic trends whereby many Western countries, inspired by new technical innovations and enhanced infrastructural complexity, drew the conclusion that the ‘commune’ was best suited to own and operate the gas works, the electricity works, the tramways, the baths, the cinemas etc. However, local publicness and bureaucratic professionalism won more ground in Norway compared with other countries and regions, where private contractors under municipal control dominated.
