Abstract
In this thesis I examine how the reliance on academic knowledge in Norwegian policy advice has changed over the last 45 years. Several have pointed out that policy makers increasingly rely on academic experts and knowledge to understand complex policy issues and to meet demands for evidence-based policies and rational decision-making. The role of academic experts and knowledge in Norwegian policy making has gotten increased scholarly attention in recent years. This study examines how the reliance on academic knowledge has changed within one part of the policy making process in Norway: the Norwegian public inquiry commissions (NOU). They are an important channel for policy advice in Norway and can be seen as reflecting the knowledge-basis that policy makers rely on at a given time. This thesis examines two main research questions: 1) How did the reliance on academic knowledge in Norwegian policy advice change during the period 1972-2017? 2) How does the participation of academics as members and chairmen in commissions influence the use of citations to academic knowledge in reports? The first research question is examined by analyzing the citation patterns in commission reports in the period 1972-2017. Citations are used as an indication of the extent to which a commission draws on knowledge and what kind of knowledge it draws on. The second research question is examined by OLS regression. I investigate the relationship between the participation of academics as members and chairmen of commissions, as well as the size of the secretariat, and the use of citations to different types of academic knowledge in the reports. The analysis is based on a newly combined dataset at ARENA Center for European research in relation to the EUREX project. It includes information about more than 1500 commissions, their members and secretaries, as well as number and source of citations in commission reports. The citation analysis shows a marked increase in the use of citations to academic knowledge and an orientation towards international academic publications and research from Norwegian independent research institutes. However, it also shows that documents produced in governmental institutions make up the most important source of knowledge and information for NOU commissions throughout the period. On the one hand, the findings provide support for arguments that there has been an increased reliance on academic knowledge in Norwegian policy advice in the context of public inquiry commissions. On the other hand, they also show that the knowledge basis of a commission report remains diverse. Further, the regression analysis finds that the participation of academics as members of commissions is strongly related to an increased use of citations in general, as well as an increased use of citations to academic knowledge. The findings confirmed that academics contribute to the commissions in virtue of their expertise. As members and chairmen, they contributed more with research from academic publications than institute research. Further, the size of the secretariat influenced the use of citations to institute research more than the participation of academics did. This shows that different actors contribute with different types of academic knowledge to the NOU reports.