Trends in the Informational Basis of Policymaking: Norway 1970–2024

ABSTRACT

The information that flows to public officials is an important aspect of policymaking. Research on the informational basis of policymaking is, however, fragmented, tending to focus on singular informational practices in isolation. This article develops a typology of multiple informational practices, joining apparently fragmented informational bases of policymaking into a common framework, and using administrative data to explore trends in informational practices in government across five decades, with Norway as a case. The results show that a notable diversification has occurred at the level of the ‘knowledge regime’, especially since the 1990s. Newer informational practices such as performance and internal audits and quality assurances of major investments have expanded at the same time as traditional practices such as policy evaluations and green papers have declined. Taken together, this implies that more customised policy information is being sourced from within the government apparatus, with standardised information becoming more prominent. Possible explanations for this are a desire for less reliance on external providers, public officials increasingly preferring compliant, expedient and predictable information from external sources, and well‐positioned internal information providers having expanded their purview and power.