Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:33:12.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Masters and Servants: Economists and Bureaucrats in the Dispute over Norwegian EEC Membership in 1972

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2015

EINAR LIE
EINAR LIE*
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo, P.O. Box 1008, Blindern, 0315 OSLO, Norway; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the dispute over Norwegian EEC membership in 1972, a large number of economists in academic life and public administration took part in organised opposition against future membership. Their efforts to prevent economic and financial integration with the Common Market are important for understanding the depth and strength of Norwegian Euroscepticism. This article shows how this scepticism was rooted in the economic profession's reasoning about economic planning and economic policy making. Special attention is given to the opposition from economists within the government apparatus itself, as this both diminished the authority of the government's pro-membership arguments and challenged norms regulating civil servants’ conduct.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 279 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Erichsen to the Minister, 2 Nov.1972, Eivind Erichsen's archive, The Ministry of Finance (hereafter EE), box 35.

2 Eriksen, Knut Einar and Pharo, Helge, Kald krig og internasjonalisering 1949–1965 (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1997)Google Scholar; Valen, Henry, ‘National Conflict Structure and Foreign Politics: The Impact of the EEC Issue on Perceived Cleavages in Norwegian Politics’, European Journal of Political Research, 4, 1 (1976), 47–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Gleditsch, Nils Petter and Hellevik, Otter, Kampen om EF (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1977)Google Scholar; Hans, Martens, ‘Danmarks ja, Norges nej. EF-folkaftemningerne i 1972’. Dansk Udenrikspolitisk Instituts skrifter, 6 (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1979)Google Scholar.

3 Gleditsch and Hellevik, Kampen.

4 Ibid.

5 Hilary, Allen 1979, Norway and Europe in the 1970s (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1979), ‘Introduction’Google Scholar.

6 Henry Valen, ‘National Conflict Structures’; Pettersen, Per Arnt, Anders Todal Jenssen and Ola Listhaug ‘The 1994 EU Referendum in Norway: Continuity and Change’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 19, 3 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pharo, Helge Ø ‘Ingen vei utenom? Norge i integrasjonsprosessene i Europa, 1946–1994’, in Claes, Dag Harald and Tranøy, Bent Sofus, eds., Utenfor, annerledes og suveren (Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 1999)Google Scholar; Skinner, Marianne, ‘Norwegian Eurosceptism: Values Identity, Interests’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 50, 3 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Both Pharo and Skinner highlight the inadequacies of this explanation.

7 Benum, Edgeir, Overflod og fremtidsfrykt (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1998)Google Scholar.

8 Bergh, Trond and Hanisch, Tore Jørgen, Vitenskap og politikk. Linjer i norsk sosialøkonomi gjennom 150 år (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1984)Google Scholar.

9 Lie, Einar and Venneslan, Christian, Over evne (Oslo: Pax, 2010), ch. 1Google Scholar.

10 Bergh, Trond, ‘Norway: The Powerful Servants’, History of Political Economy, 13, 3 (1981), 471–512CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Iver, Neumann and Leira, Hallvard, Aktiv og avventende. Utenrikstjenestens liv 1905–2005 (Oslo: Pax, 2005), 243ff.Google Scholar; Haakon Ikonomou, 2013, ‘Caught in the Middle. “Europeans” in the Norwegian Administration and the EC-case 1962–1972’. One quarter of a Thesis. Florence: European University Institute.

12 Lie, Einar, Ambisjon og tradisjon, (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1995), 436ff.Google Scholar, referring to memos by then director Egil Bakke and secretary general Eivind Erichsen, respectively.

13 Pharo, Helge, ‘The Norwegian Labour Party’, in Griffiths, Richard T. ed., Socialist Parties and the Question of Europe (Leiden: Brill, 1993), 201–220Google Scholar.

14 Memo from the minister of trade to the cabinet, 7 Feb.1972, EE 35.

15 Kleppe, Per, Kleppepakke (Oslo: Tiden, 2003), 216Google Scholar.

16 Christiansen, Ragnar, Fra Storting og styringverk (Oslo: Forlaget Aktuell, 2006), 352Google Scholar.

17 Erlend Bjørtvedt, ‘Visjon og kollisjon.’ Master thesis in History, University of Oslo, 1997, 143.

18 From Erichsen's collection of newspaper clippings, which have been cut out in such a way that the date and the name of the newspaper are lacking.

19 Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Østerud, Øyvind and Elster, Jon, De utro tjenerne (Oslo: Pax Forlag, 1973)Google Scholar.

20 Haakon Ikonomou, ‘Et trosfelleskap: Noen releksjoner om et par europeere’, available at www.historieblogg.no, published 9 Apr. 2013, http://www.historieblogg.no?p=951, last visited 23 Jan. 2015.

21 ‘Merknader til utkastet til stortingsmeldingen om EF’, Eivind Erichsen's memo, 16–17 May 1971, EF file 1, EE 35.

22 Schreiner's memo referred to the committees as ‘The Economic Policy committee’ in singular. But he must refer to the existing Short-term Economic Policy Committee, the Budgetary Policy Committee, and the Medium-term Economic Policy Committee, which were all merged into The Economic Policy Committee by a Council decision in 1974. See Official Journal of the European Communities, 63, (5 Mar. 1972), 21–2.

23 Per Schreiner's letter, 26 Jul. 1972 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PA 387/1972, FIN.

24 A large number signed the petition against membership. According to Svein Longva, a lifelong economist in Statistics Norway (Director General 1991–2004), there was one known supporter of membership in Statistics Norway's Research Department and one at the Department of Economics. Conversation with author, Apr. 2008.

25 Kleppe, Kleppepakke, 203, 216; conversation with Kleppe, 6 Apr. 2009.

26 See, for example, Ragnar Frisch in Dagbladet, 9 Nov. 1961. Frisch used this phrase (Det uopplyste pengeveldet) in the titles and leads of several journal and newspaper articles in 1961.

27 Leif Johansen in Sosialøkonomen 9–10/1979: 6–10.

28 The six were Professor Leif Johansen, Senior Lecturer Fritz Holte, Professor (and Rector at NTH) Gunnar Bøe, Professor H. J. A. Kreyberg, Lecturer Gunnar Bramnes and Research Assistant Ole Jørgen Mørkved.

29 Folkebevegelsen mot norsk medlemskap i fellesmarkedet, Folkebevegelsens melding om Norges forhold til De Europeiske Felleskap (EF) (Oslo, Folkebevegelsen, 1972), ch. 4, 31–47.

30 ‘Prinsipiell diskusjon om makroøkonomiske virkemidler’, memorandum from the Department of Economics at the University of Oslo, 7 Dec. 1962.

31 Johansen, Leif, Offentlig økonomikk (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1962)Google Scholar.

32 Bergh and Hanisch, Vitenskap, 240.

33 Stråth, Bo and Burgess, Peter, ‘Money and Political Economy: From the Werner Plan to the Delors Report and Beyond’, in Magnusson, Lars and Stråth, Bo, In Search of a Political Economy for Europe (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2001)Google Scholar.

34 Verdun, Amy, European Responses to Globalization and Financial Market Integration: Perceptions of Economic and Monetary Union in Britain, France and Germany (Houndmills: Macmillan, 2000), ch. 3, ch. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 See, for example, ‘Virkemidlene i den økonomiske politikk ved norsk EF-medlemskap’, Hermod Skånland's memo, 24 Sept. 1972, EF file 1, EE/35.

36 ‘Den økonomiske og monetære union. Konsekvensene for norsk økonomisk politikk’, memo from Hermod Skånland, Principal Officer Arnfinn Moland (the Ministry of Trade), and Principal Officer Bj. Hansen; EF file 1, EE/35.

37 Lie and Venneslan, Over evne, ch. 4.

38 Per Kleppe explains that he himself had nothing against publication, but that people at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as other cabinet members were clearly opposed to such publication. Conversation with Kleppe, 6 Apr. 2009.

39 ‘Det økonomiske og monetære samarbeid i de europeiske fellesskap. Rapport fra reise til Brussel, Paris, Bonn og Haag’, memo by Leif Eide, 20 Oct. 1971. Eide accompanied the commission as a secretary on this trip. EF file 2, EE 35.

40 Per Kleppe presumed there would be increased economic growth but no new access to labour.

41 Callon, Michel, ‘The Embeddedness of Economic Markets in Economics’, in Callon, Michel, ed., The Laws of the Market (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 1–57Google Scholar; Fourcade, Marion, Economists and Societies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 29Google Scholar.

42 Putnam, Robert D., ‘The Political Attitudes of Senior Civil Servants in Western Europe: a Preliminary Report’, British Journal of Political Science, 3, 3 (1973), 257–290, here 257CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Goss, Robert P., ‘A Distinct Public Administration Ethos’, Journal of Administration Research and Theory, 6, 4 (1996), 573–597CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Pugh, Darrel L., ‘The Origins of Ethical Frameworks in Public Administration’, in Bowman, J. S. and Elliston, F. A., eds., Ethics, Government, and Public Policy (New York: Greenwood, 1988)Google Scholar.

44 Fry, Geoffrey K., ‘The British civil service system’, in Brekke, Hans A.G.M. and van der Meer, Fritz M., Civil Service Systems in Western Europe (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2000)Google Scholar; Horton, Sylvia, ‘The Civil Service’, in Farnham, D. and Horton, S., Managing the New Public Services (London: MacMillian, 1996)Google Scholar.

45 Aberbach, Joel D. and Rockman, Bert A., ‘Civil Servants and Policymakers: Neutral or Responsive Competence?’, Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration 7, 4 (1994), 461–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Rourke, Francis E., ‘Responsiveness and Neutral Competence in American Bureaucracy’, Public Administration Review 52, 6 (1992), 539–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Jacobsen, Knut Dahl, ‘Lojalitet, nøytralitet og faglig uavhengighet i sentraladministrasjonen’, Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, 1, 3 (1960), 231–248Google Scholar.

47 Wold, Knut Getz, ‘Administrasjon og politikk’, Nordisk administrativt tidsskrift, 48, 3 (1968), 82–100Google Scholar.

48 Lange, quoted in Wold 1968, 98.

49 ‘Betydningen for næringslivets utvikling og for den økonomiske vekst’, Arne Øien's memo dated 24 Feb. 1972, EF file 2, EE 35; Report to the Storting 50 (1971–72), 103.

50 Per Schreiner to the minister of finance, memo dated 11 Sept. 1972. EF file 1, EE 35.

51 Quoted in Nationen, 15 Sept. 1972.

52 Economist Ole David Koht Nordbye, in Arbeiderbladet, 9. Sept. 1972; Prof. Tore Thonstad, in Arbeiderbladet, 14 Sept. 1972.

53 Quoted in Christiansen, Fra Storting, 352.

54 As quoted in Dagbladet, 22 Sept. 1972.

55 Andreas Hompland in Dagbladet, 22 Sept. 1972.

56 Morgenavisen, 20 Sept. 1972.